TRAVELER 
TALES 

OF 
CHINA 






HEZEKIAH 
BUTTERWORTH 





Class __TlST0_3. 

Book .3-^5 

CopyiightN^^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 




LI HUNG CHAXG. 



lEliurational STrabel Series 

OR, TRAVELLERS' TALES OE NEW LANDS 



TRAVELLER TALES OF 
CHINA 



OR 

THE STORY-TELLING HONGS 



BY 

HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH 



Lllustrated by more than 
sixty engravings 



BOSTON 
DANA ESTES & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



THE H8RARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Coptfea REceivED 

SEP. 21 1901 

Copyright entry 
CLASS ^ XXc. N<^. 

COPY a 



Copyright, igoi 
By Dana Estes & Company 

All rights reserved 



traveller tales of china 



« <» c e 



^Colonial Press 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 

Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 



PREFACE 



In this volume I have aimed, after the manner of the " Zig- 
zag Stories," to give a view of the social life of Russian China 
and China ; to make an instructive book, which should picture 
the new way around the world by the Siberian railway, and the 
new ports of the East in Manchuria and on the Yellow Sea. 
This is the second volume of the new series of "Traveller 
Tales," written after the manner of the "Zigzag" series, 
which sought to illustrate the manners and customs of nations 
by folk-lore tales and travellers' narratives, in a progressive 
manner. 

Many of the interpolated stories in this volume are " Jataka " 
legends, which means that they were parables imputed to Bud- 
dha, but which were written to make clear his teachings a 
century or more after his death. These tales are the folk-lore 
of Buddhism, and are well known in Buddhist countries, and 
illustrate the manners and customs of the people of the past 
and present. 

The book seeks to make clear to young people the new 
conditions, as well as the old traditions, of the Chinese people. 
China is the waking giant of the world, and the Trans-Siberian 
railway and ports of Manchuria seem likely to be associated 



VI PREFACE 

in the near future with important and progressive commercial 
events. 

I am indebted to Harper Brothers for permission to use a 
story which appeared in the Magazine, and one which was pub- 
lished in a holiday number of the Weekly, both stories being 
furnished to them as original contributions. 

I have followed many suggestions in the text of Le Tour du 
Monde to secure the use of the fine illustrations. Being an 
enthusiastic advocate of Froebel primary schools, I have pic- 
tured the beginning of kindergarten schools in China, which 
work I hold to be a prophecy of the education which is likely 
to find a large place in developing the new thought of the 
empire. 

H. B. 



CONTENTS 



lAPTER PAGE 

I. Strange Things to Be Seen in China — Jataka 

Tales — The Boxers — American Tea -farms . 11 
TL The New Way around the World by Russia — 

A elATAKA Tale — Confucius . . . .45 

III. Ghost Thanks — A Story of Ginseng ... 58 

IV. The Silent Mystery of the Fung Shui — Ances- 

tor Worship 84 

V. China, the Wonderful 93 

YI. Tae- ping -WANG, Who Thought Himself a Mes- 
siah — A Jataka Story 102 

VII. Secret Corea — The Hermit Xation — How They 

Travel There 110 

VIII. Manchuria, the Province of Destiny — Ginseng, 
THE Wonderful Herb That Healed Diseases 
AND Arrested Death . . . . . .115 

IX. A Very Strange Story 117 

X. Opium and Opium Smuggling 127 

XL The Trade Cities . . . . . . .136 

XII. The Opium Smoker 144 

XIII. The Silks of Antwerp — The Town where the 

Insane Go Free — The Kinderplatz . . . 175 

XIV. The Great Asian Tea Fair of Ni.tni -Novgorod 204 
'XV. A Desert Inn 214 

XVI. The Siberian Railroad — The New Way around 

THE World ........ 223 

XVIT. The Amoor — Manchuria, the Province of Destiny 231 
XVIII. The Death Lamasary, or the Human God and the 

"Prayer-flags" 244 



CONT£Nr.b 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIX. The New Parts of the World .... 250 

XX. The Corea Ginseng « . 254 

XXI. The House Spirits of Corea 257 

XXII. The Capital OF THE Celestial Empire — Mysteries 262 

XXIII. The Dowager — A Queen "An" Indeed. . . 269 

XXIV. The Wonderful Trees of China .... 276 
XXV. -The Pearl River and Canton — Chinese Jugglers 

— Confucius . . . . . . . . 290 

XXVI. Opium — The Monster Coverlet .... 308 

XXVII. The Kindergarten in Foochow . c . . 322 

XXVIII. ToNQUiN .329 

XXIX. Home — The Mystery Made Clear . . .345 

XXX. The Incredibility of the Buddhist Legends . 349 

XXXI. A Xew Port of the World 359 



I 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Li Hung Chang Fronth 

Chinese Cemetery 

View on a River near Canton. 

Tiger Island, Entrance to the Canton River 

Propitiatory Offerings for Departed Relatives 

A Chinese Guardian Deity .... 

The Horse God, Temple near Shanghai 

A Street Juggling Performance 

A Prisoner Wearing the Cangue 

Gang of Prisoners Wearing the Cangue 

Pagoda and Village on the Canal near Canton 

Court in Front of Private Residence of a Wealthy 

Chinaman . - . . 

Typical View on Canal or Creek 
Sampans and Jinrikishas 
The Great Wall of China 
A Tartar of the Chinese Army 
A Mandarin Paying a Visit of Ceremon 
Boudoir and Bedchamber of a Lady of Rank 
Apartment in a Mandarin's House, near Nanking 

Dyeing and Winding Silk in China 

Chinese Punishment of the Rack . . = . . 

Punishment of the Bamboo 

An Itinerant Doctor at Tien-Tsin 

Rice Sellers at a Chinese Military Station 

Kite -FLYING in China on the Ninth Day of Ninth Moon 

Chinese Color • Bearer ....... 

Feeding Silkworms and Sorting the Cocoons in China 
Steamer on the Amoor 



PAGE 

piece 
13 
17 
21 
29 
33 
37 
41 
47 
51 
61 

75 



99 
103 
107 
111 
129 
137 
145 
151 
161 
171 
179 
187 
198 
209 
224 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Heavy Sailboat on the Amoor 
A Chinese Farm on the Amoor 

Ghiliaks 

A Devotee Consulting the Sticks of Fatb 

Ghiliak Fishing - boats .... 

A Ghiliak Fali Day ..... 

Ghiliaks Sacrificing the Bear 

Wheelbarro\v for Carrying Passengers 

Show - room of a Lantern Merchant 

Earthen Jar Shop and Blacksmith Shop 

Playing Dan ho . 

Itinerant Restaurant .... 

Cap vender's Shop, Canton 

Dinner - party at a Mandarin's House - 

A Chinese Lady with Bound Feet . 

A Woman of Tonquin . . . . 

Wellington Street, Hong kong 

Tonquin Barber Treating the Ear 

A Doc - hoc . o . . 

City Hall at Hong kong . 

An Itinerant Barber . 

Malefactors .... 

Hong - kong, from Kow - loon 



Sha 



233 
241 
251 
260 
270 
285 
293 
301 
305 
309 
311 
313 
319 
323 
327 
331 
335 
339 
343 



347 
351 
355 
357 



TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 



CHAPTER I. 

STRANGE THmCrS TO BE SEEN IN CHINA — JATAKA 
TALES— THE BOXEES —AMERICAN TEA-FAEMS 

" You and your son are about to visit China," said a Chinese 
agent of an old and established hong in Canton. " China is a 
ghost land. Let me tell vou a secret of Chinese life ; all peo- 
ple there think they see spirits — the spirits of their ancestors. 
Now, the good Chinese see bright spirits. Associate with such, 
and avoid those who talk of dark spirits. In China the people 
worship their ancestors, and it is those who think that they are 
visited by the bright spirits of good ancestors who have real 
worth." 

The speaker was Ah Hue, or Ah Hue-Ling. He had made 
a reputation for honorable dealing as an agent of the tea trade. 
He spoke English well, and was something of a philosopher. He 
seemed to see the truth of life, rather than to reason about it. 

Mr. Barnard was a tea merchant. He lived near Winthrop, 
Mass., on one of the hills overlooking the Rumney Marsh. His 
family had long conducted a tea house in Boston, and he had 
invited Ah Hue to visit him that he might better gain informa- 
tion in regard to the trade in China. His son Charles, who was 
finishing his education, had resolved to go into business with his 
father. 



12 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

To better prepare his son for the business of the importation 
of tea for his wholesale house, Mr. Barnard planned to take his 
son to China by the way of St. Petersburg and the Siberian rail- 
way to Manchuria, and the new Golden Horn of the far East. 
Ah Hue was to go with them. 

Ah Hue-Ling had become the charm and delight of the 
Barnard family, for he told Chinese tales of people who saw 
bright ghosts, and were happy. Mrs. Barnard and her little 
daughter, Lucy, thought these folk-tales of the Flowery Kingdom 
almost as good as those of Germany. 

" Now, Ah Hue-Ling, tell us a wonder tale, and take Mr. 
Barnard out of his business cares," Mrs. Barnard would say. 

Ah Hue would sit down on the edge of the divan and lean 
over, and pussy, perhaps, would play with his pig-tail, as it 
hung over the edge of the divan. 

There was one story that he used to tell that all liked to 
hear, although it was rather uncanny. It was of Sing Ling, 
the " merchant man." 



SING LING, WHO SAW SOMETHING STRANGE 

" Ah,'- would say Ah Hue-Ling, " Sing Ling was a crafty one, 
and a wonder happened to him, and it was all in this way : 

" Sing Ling had a partner in business named Oi, and they 
were journeying from Hong-kong to Canton among the junks. 

" They had done a good business on the island of Kong, and 
the partner Oi had given the purse that contained the profits of 
it to Sing Ling to keep until they should arrive at Canton. 

"■ How bright the air was ! How the sails rose and shone like 
walls ! How the flowers bloomed in the gardens ! How the 
gables and dragons of the summer-houses glistened in the dis- 
tance along the way ! 



SING LING, WHO SAW SOMETHING STRANGE 15 

" A thought came to Sing Ling. 

" It was a wicked one. 

" He had the purse. 

" What if his partner Oi were to be drowned among the 
junks ? The purse would be his. No one would know. 

" The thought became a suggestion, and the wicked vision 
grew, and became a desire. 

'' Now Oi liked to stand on the edge of the stern of the boat 
and watch the junks. He did so on this excursion, and often 
on a plank that reached out beyond the rail. 

" Sing Ling saw that he would only have to tilt the rail, and 
his partner would fall into the deep water, and then all the con- 
tents of the purse would be his. No one would know — wicked 
Sing Ling ! 

" He watched his opportunity to give the board a tilt, — 

" ' A wicked look around he stole, 
And many a think he thunk, 
And many a wicked smile he smole, 
And many a wicked wink he wunk.' 

'' A moment came when no one seemed to be looking. Sing 
tilted the plank, and Oi threw up his hands and fell into the 
water. Sing Ling did not look after him ; he shut his eyes, 
and the boat passed on, and presently it stopped at a landing, 
and there was a great confusion in the people rushing away. 

'- Sing Ling had the whole purse now. Oi, as he thought, 
was gone forever, and was happy with his ancestors. 

" Ah, no, no ! That night Sing had the purse under his 
couch, and just as he was going to sleep with a burning con- 
science, it began to rattle, rattle. 

" Sing leaped up, and before him stood Oi ; his partner looked 
dreadful ; a bad conscience makes fearful ghosts. 

" ' Carry my gold to my mother,' said the ghost. 



16 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" The next night the same thing happened again, but Oi looked 
angrier than before. 

" ' Carry my gold to my mother,' said Oi, ' and I will never 
come again.' 

" ' I will,' promised Sing, shaking. 

" He carried the gold to Oi's mother, and told her that Oi had 
fallen overboard. He was happy, for he thought that he would 
never be arrested for the crime, and no one but himself w^uuld 
ever know. He did not know that a secret knowledge of guilt 
makes a hypocrite and ruins the soul, and is sure to be revealed. 

" But after a little he saw Oi again. It was on the street in 
open day. He ran to him. 

" ' Oi, Oi,' said he, ' you promised me that if I would carry the 
gold to your mother you would never appear to me again.' 

" ' I never have appeared to you ; I am Oi, and not a ghost. I 
fell overboard — why did you not rescue me ? ' 

" Here was an unexpected witness to his guilt. Oi had not 
been drowned, and the ghost that Sing had seen nights had been 
created by his imagination out of his bad conscience, which fur- 
nishes the warp and woof for such beings. 

" Then Sing saw that Oi saw his true character, for all life is 
self-revealing, and he fled to America and now he uses a pick- 
axe in the dark, dark mine. We see ourselves in ghostland." 

He would add : 

'' I never would tell that story again ; don't ask me. It is 
bad people w^ho see bad ghosts, and it is bad people w^ho tell bad 
stories. Ask me only to tell you tales of bright ancestors who 
come to us for good. ' Ghost thanks,' I call such, spirits of 
people whom we once helped, and who come to us to help us out 
of gratitude." 

His story illustrates the kind of superstition that fills China, 
and it teaches much in regard to the dark ghostland of Chinese 
fancy. 



SING LING, WHO SAW SOMETHING STRANGE 19 

Mr. Barnard and Charles were studying this journey when Ah 
Hue made the quoted remark that the character of a Chinaman 
might he found l)y the kind of spirits that he thought he saw. 
It is a truth of Hfe, a man who sees good in others is usually a 
good man. A man who tells his friends that he comes from 
a good city, or neighbourhood, or town, is going to a good 
neighbourhood, or city, or town. A man sees in others what he 
is himself. 

Mr. Barnard unrolled a new map of China. 

" Russian China," said he, " is to be a province of great influence 
in the future. Destiny is there. The great point of connection 
of the Eastern and the Western world is to be Manchuria." 

Charles entered the room and caught the last remark. He 
had been studying Russian China, and saw there a new map of 
the world's progress. 

" The Trans-Siberian railroad," he said to his father, " must 
change the world's travel. Why, father, look upon the new 
map. Here is the Siberian railway ; it connects with the 
Amoor, but look — let a branch of that railway run up to 
Behring Straits, and what may happen ? Those straits are only 
a ferriage — before the end of the century one may go from 
America to Paris by land." 

" They may do that in twenty years or perhaps ten from 
now," said Ah Hue. 

Mr. Barnard studied the map. Charles stood by his chair. 
They bent their eyes on the line of the Siberian railroad in 
silence. 

" Will we follow the route on the map on our journey ? " 
asked Charles. 

The route on the map, which was a French chart, was Eng- 
land, Paris, Vienna, to St. Petersburg, hence to Moscow, Nijni 
Novgorod, Irkoask, Shetinsk, and by the lakes and the great 
river Amoor and the ocean sea to Vladivostok, Shanghai, and by 



20 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

rail to Pekin. They would go to Canton and Hong-kong from 
Pekin. 

Charles had an intimate companion, Louis Forbes, who was 
familiarly called ''Lou." He was a poor boy, but had character, 
clear vision, and a strong purpose in life. He wished to be 
taken into the tea house and to learn the trade. 

Mr. Barnard saw the making of a true merchant in him. He 
had been thinking of asking him to accompany the party on the 
Russian China journey. He believed in educational travel, in 
the educational travel that begins a business career rather than 
ends it. 

This boy Louis Forbes — '' Lou " — had come to visit Charles, 
and he entered the room as the father and son and Ah Hue stood 
studying the French map. 

" The great struggle of the civilizations of the world is to be 
between the Anglo-Saxon race and the Slav," said Mr. Bar- 
nard, " and the power will dominate that best obeys the spiritual 
laws of life. The world is destined to be governed by the high- 
est law ; that which is best for the people will survive." 

" China is a waking giant," said Lou. 

" And Russian China is to change the map of the world," said 
Charles, " and Vladivostok or Port Arthur is likely to be its 
port, or one of its ports, unless a new railroad city shall connect 
the Behring Straits with Paris and the English Channel and 
London." 

Mr. Barnard listened to the two boys with much interest, as 
they studied the French map together. 

"I have decided to go to Russian China," said he to Lou. 

" I wish I might be able to make such a journey," said Lou. 
<' What an advantage it would give me in the tea trade I I will 
make the journey if I am prospered, some day," he continued, 
" after I have earned the money for travel. I want to see the 
new East." 



SING LING, WHO SAW SOMETHING STRANGE 23 

" I wish you might go with us," said Charles. " You are to 
enter our trading house." 

" You shall go," said Mr. Barnard. " I shall need trained 
clerks in my business, and if you will accept my invitation, I will 
try to help train you to become one of them." 

He added : " You and Charlie have studied together ; you are 
both to enter my business house together, and I would have you 
make the journey to Russian China together. It would be likely 
to be to my advantage to have you do so. 

" So, Lou, with your parents' consent, I will take you with us, 
and defray all of your expenses." 

" I thank you out of my heart," said Lou, " but I would dis- 
like to begin life by being dependent on the friendship of 
another. True friendship accepts no gifts. I have paid for my 
own education, and I have not had a dollar for it that I have 
not earned." 

" It is that spirit in you that makes me desire the more to 
train you for my business. I do not want men who are willing 
to be dependent, in my business. Such men do not make busi- 
ness grow. You would go with us, not as Charlie's friend, but 
as a future worker in my firm, and the money that I will spend 
on your journey will be well invested in you for me. 

" The time has come for merchants to train their clerks for 
intelligent service by giving them educational travel." 

It was soon arranged that Lou should go with Charles to 
Russian China. 

Ah Hue-Ling was a bright man as well as a story-teller. He 
not only knew Chinese folk-lore well, and the wonderful tales of 
the Chinese ghostland, those which were associated with ancestor 
worship, but he also told Chinese fables and quoted Chinese 
proverbs, and, strangely enough, sought tales of spiritual powers 
wherever he went. He knew the Jataka Buddhist stories. 

He had been brought up in the hongs, where he had studied 



24 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

English. He had read Dickens and the most notable English 
scientific books. 

Charles had a business mind. He was not greatly interested in 
folk-lore, but Lou was, so Lou and Ah Hue exchanged stories. 

WONDER TALES OF THE BUDDHISTS (THE JATAKA 
STORIES), THE OLDEST FOLK-LORE STORIES 

The Talmud contains the folk-lore tales of the Jews, the tales 
of the rabbis ; the " Arabian Nights Entertainments " comprise 
many of the folk-lore tales of the East, Desert Tales, Caravan 
Tales, legends of the Caliphs. The legendary tales of the 
Buddha, or folk-lore of Ind, are perhaps the oldest of all of this 
class of stories. These were more than five hundred in number, 
and according to the tradition they were suggested by Buddha 
himself. 

This last claim would be impossible, but they were suggested 
by the early Buddhist mind. Many of them, like those of the 
Talmud, are very interesting parables of life. 

The great collection of Buddhist folk-lore stories is called 
" The Jataka Book." 

Let us give you a specimen of One of these Jataka Tales, 
most of w^hich relate to rebirth, or reincarnation, as all people 
in these countries are believed to be born again, either as 
animals, a higher order of men, or of celestial beings. 

THE LION THAT BRAYED 

Once upon a time when Brahma-datta was monarch of 
Benares, a Buddha was born of humble parents. He worked in 
the fields. 

It was in the days of the hawkers or the travelling peddlers ; 
these journeyed from place to place carrying their goods on 
donkeys. 



WONDER TALES OF THE BUDDHISTS 27 

Now there was a certain hawker who was very greedy and 
covetous, and sought to accumulate money in every way, without 
regard to justice or honor. 

He liked to feed his donkey in fields of green barley ; it made 
the animal sleek and nimble to feed in barley fields. 

The greedy hawker so pastured his donkey by a stratagem. 
When he came to a village he took the little animal into a 
stable and bound over him a lion's skin, and turned him into 
the nearest field of barley. 

When the watchman of the town saw the animal in the field, 
he cried out : 

'' A lion ! a lion ! " 

None dared to molest him. The lion was a sacred beast and 
the monarch of all beasts ; so the donkey would have his fill in 
the dewy nights, and start on his way refreshed and fattened 
in the morning. 

One day the crafty hawker stopped at a certain town, and 
dressed the donkey in the lion's skin, and turned him loose in a 
barley field. ^ 

" A lion I " exclaimed the keepers of the town. " A lion in 
the barley ! " 

" A lion ! a lion ! " exclaimed the people. 

They were bold people, and notwithstanding the lion was a 
sacred beast, they resolved to scare him away. 

The future Buddha, being then a tiller of the fields, advised 
this course. He was a wise man then. 

The people assembled with all kinds of instruments that 
would make a noise or cktter. They went forth to the barley 
field, shouting, ringing bells, and blowing horns. 

The supposed lion gazed upon them with a look of great 
surprise. 

Then all the people shouted and sounded their gongs, and 
blew their horns. 



28 TRAVELLER TALES OF .CHINA 

They advanced and shouted again. The mock lion began to 
tremble and bow his head. 

Then they shouted again and made such a clatter that the 
donkey gave a deep and earth-penetrating bra^. 

The people were very much astonished to hear a lion bray. 

" He is only an ass," said the future Buddha. " This is not a 
lion roaring, nor a tiger, nor a panther, 'tis a foolish ass that 
brays." 

The people then attacked the poor animal who had thus 
betrayed himself. They beat him, and broke his bones and 
carried off the lion's skin. 

The hawker stole out to see how the donkey had fared. He 
found the innocent animal dying, and said : 

'' Long might the ass in a lion's skin have fed on the barley 
green, but he brayed." 

The poor donkey heard the " poem," and died at the sound of 
his own epitaph. 

An ass in a lion's skin is sure to bray. 

Such were the tales that Ah Hue began to relate before the 
journey began, and evening by evening before the journey and 
during the travelling he was asked to relate some new Jataka 
tale. 

Some of the stories were associated with strange images to be 
found in the decaying temples. These pictured history. 



WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH CHINA ? — THE 

BOXERS 

Ah Hue had been a doctor. He wore spectacles with great 
rims, and when he put his spectacles on, and with it a doctor's 
face, he looked very wise. The tea merchants and their families 
had a Travellers' Club, which studied the trades of China. 



WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH CHINA? 31 

Of all the members of this " Travellers' Study Club of China," 
Lucy was one of the brightest, and seemed to absorb the most. 
When the club had had its session, she would go to Doctor Ah 
Hue to ask if what the club had been studying were true. 

'' Let me put on my spectacles," he would say, " and we will 
talk over the matters." 

" You know about these things," said Lucy. " They guess ; I 
believe what you say." 

Doctor Ah Hue felt greatly complimented by Lucy's confi- 
dence in him. When she expressed this confidence, he would 
rise up in his silk robes, take down his great-bowed spectacles 
from his face, and bow — he seemed to bow to the four corners 
of the earth. 

" Ah Hue," said Lucy, to the large Chinese doctor one day ; 
" Doctor Ah Hue, there are some things that I do not know ! " 

Ah Hue looked very much surprised. 

" You know everything," she said. 

Ah Hue arose, circled his silk robe, and bowed. 

" Not everything," he said, " but what would you ask me 
now?" 

" There have been missionaries in China for a thousand years. 
You say that the teachings of Christ are the highest and best of 
all that have been given to mankind — why have your people 
not received them ? " 

" My people say that ' religions are many, but reason is one, 
and that all mankind are brothers.' Now that is not quite true, 
for reason is limited, — the dog cannot tell how it is the astron- 
omer calculates an eclipse, and the astronomer himself cannot 
conceive how the laws of the eclipse came into being. Truth 
lies in the intuitions, as Christ taught." 

"Oh, doctor, I am not able to follow you in such things as 
these ; what I wish to know is why your people treat the mis- 
sionary teachers so badly — why they kill them." 



32 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" Why did your people kill my people in China towns in 
Oregon and California years ago ? " 

" I do not know. What I wish to learn is what made the 
Boxers Boxers." 

" I can answer my little girl plainly and truly. 

'-' Suppose China should learn the arts of war, and become a 
warlike nation. She could put into the field ten million men. 
Now suppose she were to manufacture the finest brandy in all the 
world, and send it to the United States. Do you understand ? " 

" I understand." 

" And suppose the brandy should degrade your people, ruin 
their lives, and that your Congress should pass an act that 
China should not import the ruinous liquor to the United States. 
You would say that your Congress had done right." 

"Yes, Doctor Ah Hue." 

" Yes, of course. But suppose that China, having grown rich 
and powerful, were to declare, ' It is my right to trade where I 
please and in any commodity. It is the right of trade. I only 
ask from other nations the same port rights that I give to other 
nations.' Now suppose that she sends her brandy to Boston and 
New York, and with it a navy to enforce its sale. New York 
resists, but the Chinese navy compels her to accept the brandy. 
New York destroys the brandy, and the navy takes Long Island 
for her Hong-kong, and so enforces the ruinous liquor on Amer- 
ica. How would your people regard China ? " 

" They would say that they worshipped markets rather than 
God." 

" Well, my little girl, England acted in much that way toward 
China, in enforcing opium upon our people, and that act of 
injustice began to make Boxers, — Chinamen who looked upon 
white people as ' foreign devils.' 

" You have heard of Tonquin. The French by a treaty gained 
a concession there. Tliey encountered the Black Flags, as the 




A CHINESE GUARDIAN DEITY 
(Image at a Temple Entrance near Sliaflghai^ 



WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH CHINA? 35 

pirates were called. They fought the Black Flags, but after the 
war they annexed Tonquin. The Chinese people, having lost 
Hong-kong and Tonquin, began to fear for their country. Would 
not an American have done so under like circumstance ? " 

" Yes, Ah Hue." 

" Next came Germany. Some of the Catholic priests had 
sought to take the government of the people of their missions 
into their own hands. This created jealousy. In 1897, two 
German priests were killed by the Chinese. Two weeks after 
the crime, German ships appeared in Kiaochou Bay. The Ger- 
man legation in China made many demands on China, as a 
reprisal for the murder of the two priests, among them that 
the Germans should have the sole rights to the coal mines in 
the province of Shantung. The alarm in China grew — English 
in Hong-kong, French in Tonquin, and German influence in 
Shantung. The Boxers grew in number — they represented re- 
sistance to foreign aggression. 

" Then Italy, in 1899, made an effort to secure the Chinese 
port of Sanmoon. The Chinese government put its foot down 
firmly. 

" China said ' No.' The war with Japan showed China her 
weakness ; there was terror everywhere, and the secret society. 
Boxers, who proclaimed resistance to all foreign influences, 
grew." 

" But our missionaries did not seek their lands, but only their 
welfare ; they preached peace and brotherhood, and all that is 
best for the souls of all men." 

" True, true, but the innocent often bear the cross for the 
guilty. The work done by your true missionaries will never die. 
The work of one like Morrison will live with the stars. But 
does my little girl see what made the Boxers Boxers ? " 

" I can see, if I am a little girl." 

" Then I will take off my spectacles." 



36 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 



STRANGE THINGS TO BE SEEN IN CHINA 

The boys, seeing that Lucy was acquiring much information 
in this way, followed her example, and spent much time in ques- 
tioning Ah Hue. In one of these inter\dews Ah Hue said: 

" The world owes to China three things for which she should 
be grateful. They are — 

" The mariner's compass, printing and gunpowder." 

" And tea," said Lucy. 

" They also owe to her an example of peace which it would 
be well for all nations to follow. China has been a land of 
invasions, but she does not invade." 

Ah Hue gave the boys a new view of China. The latter 
wished to read the poems of Confucius. 

On another occasion, when Lucy had asked Ah Hue as to, 
what amusements one would find in China, the whole family 
gathered around the Chinese doctor when he put on his spec- 
tacles. 

" Well, my girl, you will like to see the jugglers in the public 
squares. They will give a man a rug or cloth to shake and 
spread on the ground, and soon wonderful things, as trees, 
animals, and perhaps a child will be found under the rug, which 
did not appear in the rug when it was shaken, and which could 
not have come up from the ground. 

" Then the theatres may amuse you. The Chinese plays are 
long, and the actors appear in terrible forms, and shout so loud 
that the tragedy becomes a comedy in the Eastern age. 

" You will find in some of the temples very grotesque gods, 
as gods of war, gods in the form of animals, and you will see 
signs over shops ' Buddhas made.' 

" The cangue malefactor will surprise you, and you will pity 
him ; he wears a board collar as large as the top of a table. He 



AMERICAN TEA -FARMS 39 

cannot see his feet with his collar on, nor feed himself, and he 
must hold up the collar board continually, or it will wear off his 
neck. He will sometimes get a friend to hold up the board for 
relief, or rest it against a fence. Some of these boards weigh 
fifty pounds. 

'' You will also see people whipped by the bamboo. Almost 
all of the lower orders of people suffer some time from the 
bamboo, as the mandarin thinks it is his duty to preserve order 
by punishment, and he punishes whom he will. Watchmen, 
with bamboos in their hands, often follow the prisoner in the 
cangue or board collar, and lash him if he lie down. The pun- 
ishments of China were very cruel, but they are disappearing. 

" You will see Chinese gardens and lovely pavilions among 
lakelets and flowers. You have such gardens in your own coun- 
try, but in China you may drink the best of tea there, and take, 
what the Americans seldom do in America, plenty of time for 
the use of the beverage." 



AMERICAN TEA -FARMS — HARDY ORANGES 

There were some peculiar reasons why Mr. Barnard wished 
to visit China. He had been to Pinehurst, N. C, and seen there 
Mr. Shepard's tea-farm, that was successfully producing tea, 
which was selling at one dollar per pound. The haunting ques- 
tion came to him. Can tea be produced in the South Atlantic 
States ? 

He had once owned orange groves in Florida. They had been 
killed by frosts and freezes. But certain Chinese and Japanese 
fruits had been grown in Florida ; might he not find new varie- 
ties of fruit in China which could be grown in Florida ? He 
used to say, Florida will recover, and one day become rich by 
protecting citrus bearing trees. Coffee in many parts of the 



40 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

American tropics has been made a very successful crop by pro- 
tection, — why not citrus fruit ? 

When first the Mandarin orange began to bear in Florida, 
it was a wonder. The sun and earth seemed to delight in 
the dark green tree. Were there not hardy oranges in the 
temperate climates of China ? » Could not the successful raising 
of Japanese plums be found an example in orange culture ? 

There was another thing that had deeply interested him. It 
was — 



THE MORAL DEFECTS CAUSED BY THE OPIUM 

HABIT 

His wife was a member of the Board of Visitors of State 
Charities, and he himself was a member of the Board. Ah 
Hue had said to him : " The effects of opium upon character 
are different from those of alcohol. The slave of intoxication 
reels, falls, wakes, rises, and is ashamed. His conscience quick- 
ens, and he struggles to reform. But the knowledge of the illu- 
sions of opium is a fatal one, — the opium-eater, or smoker, has 
little shame or quickening of conscience ; he becomes cunning, 
crafty, gravitates toward crime ; when he sees his fate, he 
struggles feebly to draw back from it, but, as a rule, returns to 
his drugs. From opium he goes to crime, and from crime to 
opium,, for the sake of oblivion, and he finds oblivion at last." • 

One day Ah Hue said to Mrs. Barnard : 

" The ruin of our society is opium ; the knowledge of the 
drug is not only death, but something worse than death ; it 
produces a state of degeneration out of which few rise. If you 
should ever find a noble soul who had acquired the opium habit 
in sickness, struggling against the demon in the drug, your heart 
would ache." 



THE OPIUM HABIT 43 

Ah Hue admired the American missionaries in China ; he 
thought them very unselfish people, as a rule, and had no crit- 
icism to make of their methods of benevolent work. 

" He is great and good," said he, " who helps others to fulfil 
the best ideals of life. The missionary does that, but the time 
will come when the work can best be carried forward by native 
Christians, as it was in ancient England, after the teaching of 
the missionaries from Rome. Your missionaries should lead 
the way into the light, and not seek to govern the natives, as 
did Spain. I believe that they will do so." 

Was this view true ? The Barnards were interested in mis- 
sionary efforts, and especially such as had followed the worthy 
suggestions of Robert Morrison in China and in the beginnings 
of kindergarten schools to unbind the feet of Chinese children. 

The study of China led them more and more to wish to visit 
that country, and especially Russian China, which seemed likely 
to be a new world. 

What.has China to teach a young American trader or farmer? 

What to the Christian man who seeks to change good ideals 
into realities ? 

The family resolved to engage Ah Hue-Ling to teach them 
the Chinese language, and the work of teaching began at once. 

" It is a duty that I owe to myself and my family to study 
China," said Mr. Barnard. " Every man is a debtor to his pro- 
fession, as I learned at school ; the times demand that we should 
have a larger and clearer knowledge of the people of the East with 
whom we trade. The American merchant must now seek a new 
kind of education for his sons — educational travel must be 
taken into his plans, as a true preparation for his business life." 

So Ah Hue became the daily instructor of the Barnards and 
their trusty young clerk, Louis Forbes. 

These studied the journey that they would make — the places 
that they most desired to see. 



44 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" I wish the boys to visit the places that represent the best 
industrial success and opportunities," said Mr. Barnard. " I 
would have them stop at Rochedale, England, the cooperative 
town, where the whole community is sufficiently rich, as the 
result of taking down the shutters of a cooperative store in 
the presence of a mob a half-century ago. One of the world's 
best studies is the work of the Rochedale pioneers." 

"I and Lucy would study," said Mrs. Barnard, ima-gining 
such a journey, " the care of the insane poor at Gheel, Belgium, 
and progressive kindergarten at Berlin. You wish to make the 
boys intelligent clerks, salesmen, and importers. I would be 
glad to be able to show Lucy the best methods of caring for the 
poor." 

" China," she added, " is a largely noble nation, and an old 
one in wisdom, but she is full of the cruelties of ignorance and 
superstition. I would see what has been the influence of the 
missionaries there in the cause of justice and right, — in freeing 
the bound feet of women, for example, and men from the tor- 
tures of the cangiie." 

" In short," said Mr. Barnard, "■ this educational journey shall 
be to find what is best in the new thought of the world. We 
are all to go to school on ships and cars." 

" And visit the new schoolmasters of the century," said Mrs. 
Barnard. " All the world is becoming a school," 



CHAPTER II. 

THE NEW WAY AROUND THE WORLD BY RUSSIA — 
A JATAKA TALE — CONFUCIUS 

The new way around the world will be by Russia and Russian 
Siberia, and a wonderful way it is ; a way in which steam and 
afterward electricity will sweep the hurrying traveller over a 
g'reat part of the earth's surface in the same car, perhaps, for 
six thousand miles. 

In six days a man may go to Havre and Paris, in two or 
three more to Moscow. Starting there on the Siberian railroad, 
he may reach the tributaries of the Yellow Sea in some nine 
days at the lowest railway fare on earth. He may there find 
ships at the Chinese or Japanese ports that will take him to 
Vancouver, Seattle, or San Francisco, and then home again, and 
so around the world. Economical tours of the world now cost 
from '$600 to $1,000. By the Russian w^ay a hardy man, or any 
one who could endure a second class passage in steamships and 
cars, might make it for |400 to $500. 

And what an education such a journey would be ! 

" Too superficial," one will say ; " too brief and too much in 
outline." 

True, but only in part ; right outlines are broad suggestions. 

Thirty dollars will take one to Liverpool from New York or 
Boston on one of the colonial cattle steamers, and forty dollars 
on a giant steamer to Liverpool, London, or Hamburg, second 
class. It costs but a few shillings to cross England from north 
to south. The ways to Moscow are many and easy. At Mos- 



46 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

COW the new and wonderful route around the world opens its 
immense distances ; faces far Manchuria, Vladivostok, and the 
Yellow Sea ; China, Japan, the Philippines, the American West. 

Let us glance at the Siberian railway, its immense distances 
and low fares. It takes but fifty -three hours to go by express 
train from London to St. Petersburg. A night journey will 
take one from the Neva to Moscow. 

The cars on the great Siberian railway start for the long 
route to the watercourses on Saturday evening. In some 
nine days, over rye fields, past gray villages and a level land- 
scape, the train arrives at Irkutsk (Irkoask). On some days 
but one or two stations arrest the far onward movement. The 
rate of speed is some twenty miles an hour. 

The rates on Russian long distance trains are very low. It is 
more than 3,300 miles from Moscow to Irkutsk. The fare for 
this immense distance, first class, including sleeping berth, is 
less than |50. The service is luxurious — stately. The second 
class fare is some 130 — think of it, |30 for more than three 
thousand miles. The third class fare is some $14. 

A through ticket from Moscow to Port Arthur or Vladivostok 
is about $60, the cheapest route of travel by sea or land in the 
world. 

Ships at Vladivostok or Port Arthur may be found connecting 
with the Japanese Islands, China, and the East, on which low 
rates of passage back to London or around the world by way of 
Puget Sound or San Francisco may be obtained. 

A person in good health would find this trip in midsummer 
invigorating. • He would, probably, for a few years to come, take 
the route to the Yellow Sea by way of the Amoor. Something 
like fl50 would cover the journey, thus giving him $30 to 
Liverpool, second class, and $20 for a second class direct way 
to Moscow. Two hundred dollars might find him at Port 
Arthur, with some -1200 out of his $400 for second class pas- 




A PRISONER WEARING THE CANGUE 

(Weight of the cangue has to be continually supported by the hands, other- 
wise it would gall and abrade the neck. This is considered only a light 
punishment when continued for one to three mouths) 



THE TWO CHARIOTEERS 49 

sages home. But he would need more money. Nothing can be 
more true than the saying : " It is very expensive travelling." 

I am only speaking of possible and experimental fares, and 
food and comfort have not been considered. There are good 
provisions for food at moderate prices at the stations along the 
Russian routes. 

Were one to go to Russia late in July, one could make an 
aside from Moscow and visit the once miraculous fair at Nijni 
Novgorod. 

In former days the great tea caravans came there. China, 
India, and all Russia met there — people by the million came 
there as to a common market. The railway may possibly ruin 
the great fair, which was one of the wonders of the East. 

The Barnards and their friends studied these routes in the 
books and magazine articles of recent travellers. 

After these studies they would ask Ah Hue-Ling for " one 
more Jataka story." There were enough of these stories to 
furnish entertainment for a trip around the world, and they 
were full of wise suggestions to a traveller. 



THE TWO CHARIOTEERS — A JATAKA TALE 

It was in Benares, in the days of Brahma Datta. A Buddha 
returned to life as the son of a king. 

When he was sixteen years of age he was sent to the great 
university, and became accomplished in all arts. He seemed to 
possess every virtue, and when his father the king died, he suc- 
ceeded him and began to reign with justice, seeking only the 
good of his people. 

The fame of his equity spread abroad and filled all lands. 
The people began to praise him and rightly, and this praise 
grew. The earth was blessed in this most righteous ruler. 



50 TRAVELLEE TALES OF CHINA 

He seemed to see justice by an inner sight. He rendered 
such just decisions that no evil person dared to bring a case into 
court, and the great Hall of Justice was closed. 

Then the king said : 

" Since the Hall of Justice is closed, and I am no longer 
called to sit upon the faults of others, 1 must study my own 
faults and sit in judgment on myself." And he did so, and 
became more worthy daily, an example of a perfect man. And 
he grew in the love of the people, and they praised him more, 
and no monarch of the East ever became so renowned for noble 
deeds as he. 

The people were happy. 

He was afraid that he might be a partial judge on himself, 
so he asked his court and his people to tell him his faults, but 
they saw no fault in him. 

The court could tell him of no faults in him. He would have 
to go beyond the palace to find a fault finder. 

He went beyond his palace, but he could find none. Every- 
body praised him as a perfect prince. 

He resolved to go beyond his city, in disguise, to search for a 
fault finder, so he mounted his chariot, and went forth into his 
vast kingdom in disguise, taking with him only his charioteer. 

" charioteer," he said, " ride hard, ride fast into the ways 
that are hidden, find me a fault finder that he may correct my 
faults, and so make me a perfect man." 

There was another king in those days, Mallika by name, who 
was also accounted to be a perfect man. He ruled over an 
adjoining kingdom. The people praised him for his virtues. 

He, too, resolved to ride out into his own country in disguise, 
taking with him only his charioteer. 

'' charioteer," he said, " ride hard, ride fast, find for me a 
fault finder that I may correct my faults, and become a perfect 



THE TWO CHARIOTEERS 53 

And the two kings met in a narrow pass on the boundaries of 
their country. 

They were riding in opposite directions, and the. country road 
had become so narrow that only one chariot could pass without 
turning aside into the rocks and trees. 

The two chariots stopped, bringing the charioteers face to 
face. 

Then the charioteer of Mallika shouted : 

" charioteer of the King of Benares, take thy chariot out of 
the way. I am the charioteer of the great King Mallika, and 
my master is greater than yours. He has the right of way." 

" How may I know that thy master is greater than mine ? " 
asked the charioteer of the King of Benares. 

And the charioteer consulted with his master. 

" I only wish to do what is right in the case," said the King 
of Benares. " The older should have the right of way. I am 
forty years old. How old is he ? " 

And the charioteer called : 

" How old is thy master ? " 

"Forty years." 

Then he consulted with the king again. 

" The king who has the larger domain should have the right 
of way. My kingdom is an hundred leagues." 

So the charioteer shouted to the other : 

" How large is thy master's kingdom ? " 

" An hundred leagues," was the answer. 

Then the noble King of Benares said : 

" I am at fault ; the one who is most righteous should pass 
the other." 

And the charioteer shouted to the other : 

" What are thy master's virtues ? " 

And the charioteer of Mallika shouted back : 

" He overcomes the strong by strength, the mild by mildness, 



54 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

the good by goodness, the wicked by wickedness, he renders like 
for like ; move out of the way, charioteer." 

" Have you told all the virtues of your king ? " inquired the 
charioteer of Benares. " What are his faults?" 

" He has none," answered the other. 

So the two charioteers stood still in the way. 

" What are thy master's virtues?" at last called the chari- 
oteer of Mallika. 

And the other shouted : 

" He conquers anger by forgiveness, and wickedness by good- 
ness, the selfish by gifts, the liars by truth, he renders good for 
evil ; move out of the way, charioteer." 

Then said King Mallika : 

" He renders good for evil. His virtues surpass mine, and he 
has found a fault in me, and I would correct it. I would bow 
before a man who renders good for evil. He has conquered 
himself. Let him pass, while I salute him, charioteer." 

The charioteer ahghted, and moved his chariot from the road. 

Then the King of Benares passed Mallika. And the two 
righteous kings bowed lovingly to each other., 

" Thou hast overcome thyself," said King Mallika to the 
King of Benares ; " thou wilt become a Buddha. king, live 
forever, and I will pray that my virtues may equal thine. It is 
a delight to do honor to him who renders good for evil." 

So the two monarchs went on their way. The King of 
Benares became a Buddha, and Mallika sought to make his 
brother king's virtues his own. This was the golden age of the 
virtues, and the two lands had peace and the people were happy. 



THE MAXIMS OF CONFUCIUS 55 



THE MAXIMS OP CONFUCIUS 

Lucy, strange as it may seem, had become so interested in 
the Jataka tales of the Buddhist, that she wished to learn more 
in regard to the amiable Confucius who taught the people to 
study and venerate the virtues of their ancestors, and made 
tombs their places of worship. 

She went to Ah Hue one day, and asked : 

" Did Confucius ever tell stories ? " 

Ah Hue put on his spectacles. 

" No, he was a philosopher. His maxims might have been 
turned into wonder tales, but I have never heard of such 
stories." 

" Tell me. Ah Hue, some of the maxims of the great man." 

Ah Hue was much surprised at the request. 

He rose up, turned around, touched his hand to his forehead, 
and sat down. 

" You are the first American," he said, " who ever asked me 
such a thing. I will be glad to answer you, for Confucius was a 
wise man, and many things that he taught all children should 
know — hear him now : 

" .' Affection for parents is the beginning of a benevolent life. 
Respect for old people is the beginning of righteousness. What 
is more to be desired than to be benevolent and righteous ? ' " 

" I think that is good teaching," said Lucy. 

" ' The path of duty is that which lies nearest to you,' " con- 
tinued Ah Hue, quoting. 

" Why," said Lucy, " that is what Miss Alcott used to write 
in albums, ' Do the duty that lies nearest to you.' Tell me some 
more, Doctor Ah Hue." 

He pushed up his spectacles, and began to quote from the 
great apostle of the good results of obedience to parents : 



66 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" ' Sincerity is the beginning and end of all true worth. 
Without sincerity there would be nothing.' 

" ' The glory of a state may arise from the excellence of one 
man.' 

" ' A gem is not polished except by rubbing, nor is a man 
without trials.' 

" ' There are three friendships that are desirable : 

" ' With the upright. 

" ' With the sincere. 

" ' With the man who observes for a good purpose.' 

" ' When a man sees an opportunity to make money, let him 
think of righteousness, which is more than money.' 

" ' Men trip not over mountains, but over ant-hills. Be care- 
ful in regard to little things.' 

"'Pride is loss and humility is increase, and humility is the 
way to heaven.' 

" ' A sincere friend will tell you your faults, and he is one of 
the best gifts that can guard your life.' 

" ' Every good deed finds its recompense.' 

" But," said Ah Hue, " there is one maxim of Confucius that 
is told in the form of a little story, that is worth more than all 
the rest. It is related thus : 

" Tsze King asked the Master of Life : 

" ' Is there one word that will tell me all my duties ? ' 

" And the Master of Life said, ' There is.' 

" ' Tell me that word of words.' 

"'Reciprocity — Do not do to others what you would not 
have done to yourself.' " 

Lucy sat silent before the answer — '^ Reciprocity''^ was a 
word that she did not quite understand. 

" I have a dictionary," she said. 

" That is a good answer," said Ah Hue. " Confucius said, 
' Never say I am unequal to this — but try.' " 



THE MAXIMS OF CONFUCIUS 51 

Lucy went away to find her dictionary. 

The Travellers' Study Club proved so interesting to the tea 
merchants and their families that story-telling by old China 
traders became a feature of the meetings. 

One of these stories related to a very mysterious root, which 
proved a very important factor of America in China — Ginseng. 



CHAPTER III. 
GHOST THANKS — A STORY OF GINSENG 

The old coast houses of New England were built of oak and 
pine, and they decayed slowly. Their great stone chimneys 
remained long after the roofs had fallen away. The ruins 
furnished temporary shelters for fishermen in foul weather, 
and chambers in the chimneys, wherein meats used to be 
smoked and kept for the spit, were associated with legends 
of robberies at sea, from the time of the pirates Campbell 
and Kidd until the end of the days of the privateers. 

Solitary, lonely, and gray, these chimneys rose in the clear, 
keen, silvery air on the bluffs, the decrepit orchards behind 
them, and a row of white buttonwood, shedding its parchment- 
like bark before them. 

I was sailing one day along the coast of Massachusetts Bay, 
my eye following the glimmering greenery of groves and or- 
chards and household trees on homeward ways. One of these 
ancient chimneys broke the curving outline of roofs. 

" They used to say that that chimney was haunted by the 
ghost of a Chinaman," said Sailor John, who was with me. 
" The people in these parts traded with China in the days of 
ginseng " — he pronounced the word ginsang. 

I had read of many kinds of phantoms, but had never before 
heard of a phantom Chinaman on the New England coast. Gin- 
seng, with its nasal pronunciation — what could that mean ? 

Old Captain John held the tiller, and looked curiously at the 
chimney as we passed. There was an osprey's nest in a decay- 

58 



GHOST THANKS 59 

ing buttonwood-tree near the chimney, and gray-white ospreys, 
or fishing-hawks, were wheeling above it and circling toward 
the sea. 

" What is giusaug ?^' I asked of Sailor John. 

" Ginsang — didn't you never hear of ginsang ? Ginsang 
grows on the hillsides, in the woods of the West, in Pennsyl- 
vania and A^irginia. There are patches of it on New England 
hills. It opened the port of Canton to the world ; it is a magic 
plant, or so it was thought to be in China. The old warehouses 
along the wharves of Boston used to be stored with it ; the Chi- 
nese once thought that it would cure all diseases, and make the 
right kind of a man live forever. It had the ' gift of immortal- 
ity,' the Chinese said. They exhausted their own supply in 
their provinces, and sought it from New England ships. Let's 
anchor, and go and lunch under the orchard trees near the stone 
chimney. I'll tell you there one of the most curious stories 
that you ever heard." 

We anchored, stretched ourselves under the crooked apple- 
trees in the shadow of the sturdy smoke-chimney, where Sailor 
John told me a tale of a New England Thanksgiving dinner 
which was associated with events that seemed to solve, to my 
mind, some of the many mysteries of the soul. It furnished a 
strange chapter of the history of Massachusetts Bay, and held 
me with eyes fixed on the sea, not only because of its occult 
soul-analysis, but because it pictured the manner in which super- 
stition opened the way to the China trade, and wrought mental 
miracles in China, like those which in many ways and under 
new forms find credence in New England to-day, and it left in 
my memory a haunting scene of a Thanksgiving dinner. 

Barney Post was a strange man — so began the primitive 
narrative — but he was an honest soul ; he meant to do right, 
but there was an angle in his mind. He was a day-laborer in 
pleasant weather, and he went fishing on rainy days in sum- 



60 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

mer. He had a sick wife and a great family of children, and he 
kept many dogs, as such men who can hardly feed their own 
families do. 

A terrible thing had happened on the white reef that lay just 
beyond the sandy shore of the little coast town. An English 
ship from Canton, China, loaded in part with tea for Boston, 
had been dashed upon the reef in the November gales, and had 
broken up. The bodies of the sailors had been washed ashore, 
and among these bodies was a Chinaman. 

The sun rose red against black clouds on the morning after 
the wreck, and the fishermen found the bodies laid out on the 
sand. They went to Esquire White, the president of the select- 
men, or town council, to ask him what they should do. 

" Bury the English sailors on the hill by the deserted house," 
said the Esquire, '' and lay the Chinaman in the sand and apart 
from the others ; he is a heathen." 

Great excitement followed. The graves for the Englishmen 
were dug, the bodies were lifted to the hillside on boards and 
put into pine coffins, and the country parson made a prayer on 
the hill as the earth covered them. 

Then the Esquire and the fisher-folk went down to the sand 
to examine the body of the Chinaman. With them went Barney. 
The body was a pitiable object, and the sight touched the tender 
heart of the field-laborer. 

" I'll bury him, too, on the hill," said Barney to the Esquire ; 
" on the hill ' apart from the others.' " 

" But he is only one of the great world, only as one wave on 
the ocean," said the Esquire. 

" We are all like that, Esquire — one wave ; we rise and sink 
and go. I would want to have my body buried were I to be 
found dead on any coast." 

'' But he has no name," said Esquire White. 

" Then I will look for no reward." 



GHOST THANKS 63 

" He is a heathen : look at his feet and his braid of hair. 
The sand furnishes a good enough grave for him ; let the waves 
wash over him ; it is fate." 

" That would never satisfy me uithin^^ said Barney. " He is 
one of us — we are all human ; we make fate." 

Barney lifted the slender body of the stranger upon a board, 
and he and a negro boy carried it up the hill. 

He buried it " apart from the others." But he was not sat- 
isfied. 

The fisher-folk had placed stones at the graves of the English- 
men. Barney went to Esquire White to ask for his oxen to 
move a stone. 

" Where to ? " asked the Esquire. 

" The Chinaman's grave — all alone, away from his kin." 

" But," said the Esquire, " none of his kin will ever know." 

" He may know." 

"Oh, Barney, you're daft. Suppose the dead do know; he 
was a heathen ; do the heathen dead know ? " 

" I will work a day for you in the hurry of haying-time if you 
will let me have the oxen," continued Barney. 

" Have your will, Barney." 

Barney took the oxen, and placed a tall bowlder at the head 
of the Chinaman's grave, " apart from the rest." It loomed 
there over the sea near the great stone chimney. The people 
talked about it as they rode by, and the fishermen as they passed 
on the sea. 

The Esquire exacted from Barney the promised day's work in 
haying-time, and jeered at him in regard to the monument that 
he set up to " nobody from nowhere." 

"What satisfaction, Barney," said he, "could it give you to 
do such a thing as that ? " 

" The Chinaman knows, and I believe in ' ghost thanks.' We 
don't do rioiit ao-ainst the world for nothino-. The dead know." 



64 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

Old Barney had a theory which has always been held in part 
by Roman Catholics, but which was novel in a farming New 
England neighborhood. He thought that people who were un- 
able to return favors in this world would do so in another world, 
or that such, after death, would help those who had helped them, 
whom they could not repay here. He reasoned that this was 
the divine law of gratitude, and he called it not " intercession of 
the saints," or " spirit return," but " ghost thanks." He was 
not a spiritualist in the common sense, but he found the Scrip- 
tures full of promises of the good-will of the spiritual world to 
unselfish souls, and when one Captain Flanders kept a poor fam- 
ily of sailor's children from the town house, and the captain 
found two hundred pounds of ambergris off Cape Horn, worth 
a hundred or more dollars a pound, he thought that he saw the 
hand of the dead father of the orphans in the captain's good 
fortune. 

His favorite hymn was, " There are angels hovering around," 
and it was his joy to believe that benevolent people who died 
poor became " ministering spirits," and rendered " ghost thanks." 
" Any one who does good without hope of reward will be made 
rich by blessed company," he used to say. " Every act of sym- 
pathy ends in a thanksgiving — the true riches lie in that mine." 

He used to sit on the stone wall by the elder blooms, or 
" blows," and talk with the neighbors who wandered along the 
way in the shady summer evenings. 

" A man with a good heart who is not blessed in himself will 
be blessed in his children ; and if he is not, the unseen world 
will reward him. I am going to do and do, and be and be, and 
help and help, and when I die I shall go to my own." 

The people laughed at poor old Barney, and said that he was 
" daft." 

Barney had done one thing that could bring him nothing ; 
such things grow ; the Fates began to weave. 



GHOST THANKS ' 6b 

One day, as the old folks used to tell the story after Thanks- 
giving dinners, old Barney sat down on the wall at the end of 
the cow-path that led to the pastures. He kicked the wall with 
his loose shoes. 

I can recollect how the deserted place looked when I was a 
boy. The old cellar door lay on an embankment among dwarf 
lilacs and bouncing-bets. There was a hand-stone by the well, 
and the frame of a grindstone under a black-cherry-tree, where 
scythes and corn-cutters hung. 

On the windy hill, among sailors' graves, grew sweet-fern. 

On this November morning of which I am speaking Barney 
was on his way to the sea meadows to mow thatch for roofing 
and stable buildings. 

He had a son named Alden, with a wide forehead and curls. 
This boy had followed him, and the two had dinner-4)ails. 

Barney had sat down to rest hefoi^e he had begun to work, 
with a " Oh, hum ! I don't care if I do." What that expres- 
sion meant none knew. It answered some minor chord in his 
soul. 

" I must have a thinking spell first,^^ he used to say. 

That day Barney looked down the coast and saw the chimneys 
smoking with Thanksgiving fires. 

Alden too had a '' thinking spell," as he sat by his father that 
morning on the wall. Down the turnpike-road he saw a tall 
chimney smoking over white gables. His heart had begun to 
warm with love for Esquire White's little daughter Addle, 
who went with him to school on the clematis-lined road. The 
Esquire was to give a Thanksgiving dinner that day ; a part 
of the children who went to the district school were invited to 
the feast as Addie's " particular friends." He was not invited. 

There was an empty room in his heart. 

The Esquire, out of pity, had loaned his father money at the 
time that the " canker rash " came to his family. Three of his 



66 TRAVELLEB TALES OF CHINA 

brothers had died. But the Esquire wanted his pay at last. 
Barney had nothing to pay — but work. So he worked for the 
Esquire for weeks, and while he did so his own family lived on 
mush and milk, and he began and ended the day with an " Oh, 
hum ! We can't tell." 

Alden thought and thought. It was hard to be so poor. 
Were there indeed gods in the heaven ? If so, would they help 
him ? It was a faith-blinding sight to see his father give thanks 
at the table — for nothing — and the chimneys around all smok- 
ing with feasts. 

In the midst of his thinking spell that November morning 
Barney suddenly turned to Alden, and tapped his long bony 
fingers on his son's dinner-pail. 

" It sounds holler, Alden." 

" Never mind, father," said the boy, who was all heart and 
imagination. 

" It is the best that I can do. This is Thanksgiving day, 
Alden, and your mother slid into my dinner-pail a piece of 
rye bread spread over w^ith marmalade. Think of her heart, 
Alden ! She won't last long, Alden. I can see the yellow 
in the leaf before the tree turns color. She put the bread and 
marmalade into my pail that I might not forget what day it is. 
Let's change pails, Alden." 

The boy uncovered the well-scoured pail and looked into it. 
There was no marmalade there. 

" Here, Alden, this goes to you." 

Barney took the choice lunch out of his own pail and put it 
into Alden's. 

" Never mind me, Alden. It don't much matter what I have 
now — my chance in life is gone. All that is left for me to say 
is, ' Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.' We can't 
tell. But, Alden, Alden, your eyes stand well apart, which is 
a good sign. No good intention is ever lost." 



GHOST THANKS 67 

Barney had once tried to preach at the candle-light meetings, 
but had failed. 

Then his heart turned to Alden, whose eyes were wide apart, 
and he used to say : " The good ideals which a father loses will 
be made up to him in his son. I will be you, some day, Alden." 

That morning an extraordinary sight appeared on the sea — 
a speck of white enlarging on the wide purple bay. 

" To China," said Barney. 

A ship of nearly one thousand tons, with sails set, was cross- 
ing the bay, going out. She was a beautiful sight. 

" To China," said the boy. " Father, I never shall forget the 
bread buttered with marmalade. You gave me your soul in it. 
I will make you thankful in your old age. I can help you now." 

" What is it, Alden ? How ? " 

" What is the most valuable thing that ship is carrying over 
to China, father ? " 

" Ginseng. It is worth all the rest of the cargo. It is worth 
its weight in gold. The merchants exchange it for tea. They 
could not get into Canton in any other way." 

"I've seen ginseng in the hollows among the sarsaparilla," 
said the boy. " It is rare here." 

Here and there in the woodland pastures were half-withered 
stalks of the magic ginseng, whose roots resembled the human 
form, which was one of the reasons that the Chinese regarded it 
as the gift of the gods. 

" I can gather ginseng, father." 

" But they will not pay much for it here ; it is only in Canton 
that it is worth its weight in gold. But you do pity me, Alden, 
and I am thankful for you. I tried to do some good in the 
world, but it was no use ; I had a message, but couldn't deliver 
it ; it may be that my desire will pass onward to you. I see 
life in that way. If a man cannot be what he wants to be him- 
self, it is a great comfort to see his visions fulfilled in his sons. 



68 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

So life compensates. I have not lost faith. Alden, Alden, I 
would rather see jou a man of name and influence than to be 
one myself. Don't you ever forget, Alden, what I have said 
this morning by the old chimney by the sea." 

The two went down to the salt meadows, the boy whistling on 
his way, now and then stopping to uproot a bit of magical gin- 
seng ; the herb did grow here as well as in the Alleghenies. 
He pitied his father ; he loved him, and the incident of the mar- 
malade had so filled his soul with a new purpose that he was 
another Alden now. The currents of life flow silently and 
unseen. 

At noon they returned to the chimney to eat their dinner. 

" Father," said the boy, with a nervous resolution, " I will, 
I will, I will ! " He bowed his head as though in a realm of 
fancy. 

" What, Alden ? What is it now ? " 

" I will give you a Thanksgiving dinner some day, and call all 
the people." 

The sun shone fiercely for a fall day. 

They climbed up the flue into the chamber into which smoke 
had once passed to flavor and preserve hams. There were some 
strange papers there, left by wayfaring sailors. Alden opened 
one of these ; it was full of curious characters, and among them 
was a rude picture of a Chinese mandarin or merchant. 

Alden glanced at it, and, tired of pitching thatch after his 
father's scythe in the salt meadows, he fell asleep leaning against 
the wall. His father took the paper and put it into his frock 
pocket, to examine at some other time. 

Suddenly the boy started up, as from another world. 

" Father ! " 

Barney opened his drowsy eyes. 

" Father, I've seen something ! " 

" What have you seen, Alden ? '* 



GHOSr THANKS 69 

" A Chinaman — a Chinaman in the chimney. I can see him 
now." 

" I don't see any Chinaman in the chimney, boy. You're 
going daft." 

" I can see him as plainly as I can see you. He is big ; he 
has shoes that turn up at the toes ; he has silk robes ; he has 
strings of jewelry — pearls ; his hair is roped, and his eyes are 
like ox-bows. He has something like a breastplate of jewels. 
He is going out." 

"Out where, Alden?" 

" He is all fading away. The chimney is haunted, father." 

" 'Twas the ship going out to China that made you see that, 
Alden." 

"This is more than a dream. I shall see that Chinaman 
again." 

The two climbed down the chimney and went home, Barney 
looking suspiciously into the elder-bushes by the way. 

One day Alden said, " Father, I am going away." 

The Fates were at their looms. 

"Where, Alden?" asked Barney, with a strange light in his 
eyes. 

" To China, with ginseng." 

" Now that you have begun to be a help to me, Alden ? " 

" You shall not want for Thanksgiving dinners in your old 
age. I am going to become rich for your sake." 

When a boy begins to see the poverty of his home, and to 
dream dreams, love is likely to be a factor in the case. It was 
so now. Alden never mentioned the name of Addie, but her 
face haunted him like the Chinaman's, and the two appeared to 
him in the same vision. 

He left for Boston in a few days, taking with him an old 
chest that had Chinese characters that had been found among 
the wreckage of a ship from China. 



70 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

His father carried him away to the city, in his shaky wagon 
drawn by old Dobbin, whose harness was all tied up with tow 
strings and toggles. 

They met the Esquire on the way in his fine carryall. 

Alden shrunk up in a heap. Addie was with her father. 

Esquire White leaned out of the rolled-up curtains. 

" Goin' to sea ? " said he to Alden. 

Alden bobbed his head, which seemed to sink into his body, 
out of sight. 

" But don't you never come back till you can do more credit 
to your family than your father ever has done ! Go 'lang ! " 

He touched the horse with his whip, and the animal shot 
ahead of them. Addie's face appeared at the back of the flying 
vehicle. Alden's head craned. She waved her hand sympa- 
thetically. Alden saw that hand when it had gone from sight 
— he would see it for twenty years. 

As Alden looked back toward home for the last time, he 
saw the old smoke-chimney, and above it the gray stone at 
the shipwrecked Chinaman's grave. That brought tears to his 
eyes. 

The Fates were making ready to weave ; the pattern was set. 

So in the Canton packet Alden sailed away with a simple 
quadrant, a Bowditch navigator, a pea-jacket, and other clothes 
from the slop-shop, and much ginseng. The ship contained a 
large quantity of the magical herb in its cargo. Foster's Wharf, 
India Wharf, and Long Wharf faded away, and Castle William, 
that guarded the harbor, sunk in the sea. 

In Alden's dreams, waking or sleeping, three scenes continu- 
ally reappeared, — the old chimney, with its smoke-room; the 
grave of the Chinaman, which his father had made ; and the 
bowery road where Addie had waved her hand from the open 
curtains at the back of the carriage after her father's withering 
words. 



GHOST THANKS 71 

In the usual way of the young sailor, now sick, now coming 
to his stomach, with an appetite for salt stuff — pork and pulse 
— with an accident or two from the spanker, he arrived at the 
China Sea, and entered that part of the burning tropic world 
whose river port is Canton. There he learned to weigh teas and 
pack silver at the hong, or commercial house. 

He did more, for his purpose lifted him above the other 
clerks at the hong. He learned the Chinese commercial lan- 
guage. He came to count in Chinese, and was given the post 
of a recorder of .goods. 

He attracted the attention of the Chinese mandarins at the port. 

Among the tea merchants at Canton w^as Hoqua, an officer of 
great wealth and influence. Hoqua and his sons had the super- 
vision of the American trade for a generation. Hoqua was the 
soul of honor, a true gentleman, about whom American sea- 
captains who visited the hong brought wonderful stories to 
America. He was a lifelong friend of the Boston commercial 
firm of Russell & Co. Mr. Forbes, a pioneer merchant in Can- 
ton, relates that Hoqua one day sent for an American trader 
whose health and resources had failed, and who owed him 
$100,000, and said to him: "I hear that you want to go back 
to America, and have not the money. I am sorry to lose you, 
but here are your notes cancelled." 

Alden heard much of the great Hoqua — of his honesty, his 
liberality, his riches, his silken robes and jewels. He felt a 
strange attraction toward him, and longed to see him. 

One day he was told by the stevedores that the great tea mer- 
chant was approaching the hong on a barge from the river. He 
rushed to the open doors, which looked out on a multitude of 
airy bridges and boats. 

The barge made its way amid the forests of craft. On the 
front deck, just outside of a parti-colored canopy, stood a tall 
form in princely robes. 



72 TBAVELLEB TALES OF CHINA 

As Alden's eye fell upon it, his heart stood still. That was 
the very Chinaman whom he had met, or seemed to have met, 
in the chimney by the sea ! 

A tremor ran over him. Do the living appear to the living? 
Are there ghosts of the living ? Did ever a Chinese merchant 
prince appear in a ruined house to a simple country boy half the 
world away ? 

The barge approached the hong. He stood there, Hoqua, 
with robes of lustrous silk and strings of pearls. His sleeves 
were flowing, his shoes curved upward at the point, and he 
wore a strange breastplate of jewelled embroidery. There was 
a serene look in his face, an expression of beneficence, such as 
is seldom seen among trading-people. All this Alden had seen, 
or seemed to have seen, before. 

The barge touched the bridge at the hong, and Hoqua entered 
the trading-house, and was received like a prince. 

Alden walked about the tall man as one in a muse. He could 
not restrain his tongue. 

" I have met him before," said he, to an English clerk ; " or 
am I going to have the fever ? " 

" Where ? " asked the astonished accountant. " Where have 
you met Hoqua before ? " 

" In America ! " 

" You have gone out of your head this time," said the clerk. 
"Hoqua was never out of China." 

But before him was the Chinaman of the chamber of the 
chimney — the face, the robes, the jewelled ornament on the 
breast. 

Alden felt of his pulse. It was normal. He went apart by 
himself to receive the cool winds that flew over the forests of 
bridges. 

The Fates were weaving. 

Alden felt the great soul mystery of these events. In the 



GHOST THANKS 73 

loneliness of his life he was led to inquire as to the cause 
that should lead the eidolon of a Chinese mandarin merchant 
into the visions of an American pasture-boy. His life became 
haunted. He followed Hoqua. 

He stood as near as possible to Hoqua when the merchant 
was in the hong, often just behind him ; he somehow felt that 
the tall form in silk and strings of jewels was a spiritual ac- 
quaintance. 

One day, as the two were seated under the same airy canopy, 
looking out on the glimmering junks in the river harbor, Hoqua 
suddenly bent his eyes on the young man. Alden saw the 
glance and felt it, and his knees shook. 

'• You come from the city called Boston," said Hoqua, in Chi- 
nese. " That is half-way around the circle of the world. You 
never saw any of our people before." 

The sailor drew up his shaking knees. 

" I once saw a Chinaman in America," he answered. " He 
was dead." 

Hoqua drew himself up in his chair, and lifted his long arms 
and flowing sleeves with corded ruffles. 

".How could that be, my young friend — dead — dead ? " 

The eyes of the two met. 

" He was wrecked on a tea-ship in a storm on the coast. My 
father found his body among the rest." 

" Was it an English tea-ship ? " asked Hoqua. 

" An English tea-ship, bound for Boston," said Alden — " so I 
was told. It struck the reef in the storm." 

Hoqua held up one hand, as if pointing. 

"I knew that ship. I saw her when she sailed away with 
papers for America. I knew that Chinaman, too ; his name 
was Cumwa. He went without leave. He was of my family 
blood — of jny own ancestors' blood. He heard the American 
sailors tell stories in the hong, and his mind would sail away in 



74 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

dreams; then he sailed away. He wished to see the other side 
of the world. This world is not so very large." 

Hoqiia leaned his arms on his knees, and lifted his hand so 
that his silk sleeve fell back from his white ruffles, in which 
were jewels. 

'' My friend from the other side of the world, what did your 
father do with the body ? The bodies of our people are sacred." 

Alden's form grew heroic. His father seemed a grand figure 
now. 

" He buried it in a decent grave on a bluff, and set on it a 
stone. My father is a man of heart." 

The mandarin rose slowly, and towered above the forms of 
the Chinese who had gathered around him in the pavilion. He 
spread out both of his great arms over Alden, and said : 

" He shall be blessed ; your father shall be blessed." 

He touched the mystic figures woven of gold threads and 
jewels on his breast, and said : 

" He who befriends a dead body, a Chinaman, shall be blessed 
of all the spirits of the ancestors of the man who died in soli- 
tude. Your father shall be blessed. You shall be blessed. 
Your father shall be blessed in t/ou.^^ 

Hoqua moved toward the council-room in the hong. There 
was a conference of ship-owners there. In an hour he came out 
again, and said : 

" I have purchased your apprenticeship ; you are free. Come 
with me to my plantation on the river." 

Alden looked upon Hoqua as a father now, a brother, a kind 
of god. He rose to follow him. He would have followed him 
anyw^iere. 

As he was preparing to embark on the barge, a black tempest 
arose, and, at the breaking of the clouds, some Chinamen came 
running down to the hong to tell Hoqua that his brother had 
been killed by the lightning. 



GHOST THANKS 77 

Darkness and light together came into his face. 

" That cannot be ! That cannot be ! He had eaten ginseng ! " 

But the brother of Hoqua was dead. 

" It was not the true ginseng," said the Chinese doctors when 
others came to tell Hoqua the dreadful news. " We would give 
pound for pound in gold for the true ginseng, and let our young 
friend from Boston, around the shadow of the world, weigh the 
ginseng," said one of these grave men. 

" I have ginseng," said Alden. " It has the true body. Come 
and see." 

He went to his chest in the long storeroom. Hoqua, the 
doctors, and a company of Chinese merchants followed him. 
He opened the chest, and held up a forked root that looked 
like a doll. 

Hoqua smelled of the root ; he put it to his lips. 

" That is the true ginseng," he said. " The gift of gods. 
Weigh it ! weigh it ! You shall have its weight in gold." 

The Chinaman in the chimney seemed to i^eappear in Hoqua. 

Alden rose up. He felt himself rich. The New England 
road came back to him. He saw Ad die again waving her hand 
from the curtains at the back of her father's carryall. His 
heart glowed with a moment of exultation, when suddenly his 
New England conscience returned. A New Englander is always 
a New Englander. 

" Hoqua," said he, " I will sell the ginseng to you as medi- 
cine. It is true ginseng, but no ginseng has immortal life in it. 
It may ciire disease, but it will not make you live forever. I 
am honest in all my ways ; I would not deceive you." 

Hoqua's face clouded, then lightened up. 

" Your father buried the sailor," said Hoqua. " I see him 
in you." 

The ginseng was weighed, and a fortune was placed to the 
account of Alden. 



78 ^ TBAVELLEE TALES OF CHINA 

" The ancestors of Cumwa are leading you by chains of gold 
invisible," said Hoqua. 

Was this indeed so ? queried Alden. Were his father and 
Hoqua right ? Were there indeed '' ghost thanks," or only 
invisible laws ? Was there a Hand behind his hand ? Were 
there feet unseen following him ? 

The Thanksgiving that he had promised his soul, that he 
would one day make for his father in the old coast town, 
haunted Alden still. 

It rose before him at the Feast of the Lanterns. He was 
richer now. He could pay his father's debts. He was richer 
than the Esquire himself. How would he meet Addie ? How 
would Addie meet him ? He wrote to his father that fortune 
favored him, and as soon as he could get released he was com- 
ing home, would give him a surprise, and make him a Thanks- 
giving. He wrote such a letter yearly for seven years, then 
once, in the same spirit, each two years or more. 

Poor old Barney ! His wife had died. He had had the 
lumbago, and gone yearly more and more into debt. The 
poorhouse door stared him in his face ; only Addie stood 
between him and that. She supplied his wants in several 
ways. But as often as Barney received a letter from Canton, 
he carried it around to his neighbors, saying : 

" There ! What did I tell you^ now ? It is ' ghost thanks ! ' 
' ghost thanks ! ' It is all because I gave a grave to the China- 
man. He knew ! " 

The East India Company used to tell stories at the hongs. 
One of these related to an old merchant named Denman, who 
had befriended young Benjamin Franklin. This man failed in 
business in Bristol, England, went to America and made a for- 
tune, and returned to pay his creditors. 

He discharged his debts in a novel way. He invited his cred- 
itors to a dinner. They came in no very kindly feeling, and 



GHOST THAyKS 79 

found what he owed them, principal and interest, under their 
dinner-plates. 

Alden had a vision after hearing this story at the hong. He 
would make a dinner like that for his poor old father some day. 
It was an easy vision to realize, for he became richer daily. 
Alden became worth more than £20,000, a fortune at that 
time, and with his wealth the vision of what he would do for 
his father and Addie grew. 

It was little that was new that Barney could say to Addie, 
but he one day brought her a very curious picture. It was the 
Chinese paper that Alden had found in the chimney, and that 
he had put into his coat pocket. It was that of a giant China- 
man in silk robes, flowing sleeves, and ornament of pearl, with a 
breastplate like a priest's, or an imitation of one. They looked 
at it together, and agreed to keep it until Alden should return. 

A carriage rolled down the old Indian road, now a turnpike 
past rowened meadows, azure woods, and stacks of corn. 

It stopped at the door of the Esquire. 

A serene face stood under the red woodbines as it stopped. 
It was the Esquire's daughter Addie. 

A middle-aged man got down from the carriage, and said to 
the woman : 

" Do you know me now ? " 

" I do not feel that I have ever parted from you. I have seen 
this hour in my heart." 

" Yours was the one kind hand that waved after me when I 
went away. It shall be the first one that I wish to take on my 
return." 

He stepped up under the cool shadows of the woodbine, in the 
warm Indian summer, and took her hand. 

" Addie, I want this hand for my own." 

" Alden, I want your heart for my own ! I wanted it when I 
waved my hand after you twenty-one years ago." 



80 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" Where is your father, Addie ? " 

" He is dead." 

"Where is father?" 

" In the old home. I go to see him every day. I would 
bring him here, but he will not come." 

" Does he still believe in ' ghost thanks ' ? " 

" Yes, Alden, he seems to see the prophet's mountain vision, 
that unseen hosts encamp around those who struggle for good, 
and they who be 'for us are more than those that be against 
us.' I have been true to him for his own sake and for your 
sake. I have loved him for you." 

" Oh, Addie, he does not J?:now that I have come home. Let 
us two be married on Thanksgiving day, which is close at hand, 
and you shall invite him, and all who have lent him money and 
befriended him, and so fulfil his dreams. My father has a beau- 
tiful soul." 

The good people all received notes from Addie, the Esquire's 
daughter, to take their Thanksgiving meal with her. She 
seemed to invite more people than the house could hold. What 
did it mean ? There was never heard of such a thing in Cape 
Village before. The old Esquire had left to her nothing but his 
farm and a bank account of a thousand or more dollars. The 
Esquire was not greatly " aforehanded." 

A paragraph in the invitation added to the amazement of not 
a few. It was as follows : 

" If Barney, Alden'' s father, owes you anything — money, or for 
service — 'please send to me your hill on the lueek before Thanhs- 
giving. His son wishes me to discharge his father' s debts.^^ 

His son ? Where was his son ? 

The people ran from house to house to discuss these strange 
matters, each one looking up to the chimney on the hill and the 
gravestone of the Chinaman as he went. Had Alden sent home 
money to his father ? 



GHOST THANKS 81 

Some of the neighbors went to old Barney with the strange 
news, but the old man only shook his head and said : 

"I know nothing of it — only here," and he put his hand on 
his heart. '' Is Alden coming home to Thanksgiving ? " asked 
he of his callers. 

" She has invited me — Barney — old Barney. I tell you it 
is ' ghost thanks.' You don't believe in such things. I do. I 
only believe that two and two make four. The souls of the 
blessed discharge their debts. All this seems mighty strange. 
I do not know what to make of it." 

Thanksgiving day. The mellow bell in the white steeple 
rang, and the people gathered from the harvest farms in the 
church, but did not listen much to the sermon. They were 
thinking of what was to follow. 

Noon. The people filed out of the church and made their 
way toward the house of the late Esquire. 

The old minister led them. He had been invited too — 
" especially invited." 

The people filled the house, but found Addie absent. They 
asked for her, and were told by the gardener, who managed the 
farm " on shares," that she had gone after Barney. Then the 
people walked around and around, and looked up betimes to 
the old chimney and the tombstone on the hill. 

Some sailors came running up the hill and entered the house. 
They were asked why they had come. 

" To the wedding," was the reply. 

"What wedding?" 

But the parson put his finger on his lips. So they did not 
answer. 

The tables were set and loaded with the usual New England 
hospitality, and with some dishes that the guests had never 
seen before. The plates were turned, and cards with the names 
of the many guests were laid upon them. 



82 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

At one o'clock the church bell began to ring. This was 
unusual. Who had told the sexton to ring the bell? 

The parson did not seem to be alarmed. He went out in 
the open field under the great shining elm, and asked the people 
to follow him. They did so, filled with wonder. 

Presently all eyes were turned toward the glimmering path 
"that led through the near woods to old Barney's home. 

There was a flutter of white silk ; Addie was coming, dressed 
in white, with a cloud of silk around her. She was leading old 
Barney, and he, he had on a new suit ; and behind them walked 
a man with a firm tread and a noble face, with eyes bent upon 
the ground. 

The people stood silent, and the three came on, brushing 
away the golden leaves that had fallen in their way as they 
approached. 

The parson met them under the elm, and said to the stranger 
and to Addie, " Join your two hands." 

They did so, and then the parson said some words, and lifted 
his voice : 

" T pronounce you husband and wife. Let us kneel down." 

The people fell down on their knees, with streaming eyes, and 
Barney's form shook, and he said : 

" I knew — I knew — I always knew. ' Ghost thanks.' " 

The Thanksgiving dinner followed. Each debtor found his 
bill to old Barney paid as he turned his plate at the table. The 
wonder grew. 

The old parson stood up at last, and made an address to the 
bride and groom, and asked of the groom, " Do you believe in 
^ ghost thanks '? " 

" No — may my father forgive me — no." 

" Then how do you account for your life ? " 

The people stood silent. 

*' My father buried an unknown Chinaman. That was the 



GHOST THANKS 83 

first step toward my good fortune. He gave me his Thanksgiv- 
ing dinner out of his dinner-pail one day, and I resolved that I 
would make for him Thanksgiving dinners in his old age that 
good people w^ould remember ; and I went away to do it, and 
Addie waved her friendly hand after me. That was my second 
step. I met Hoqua, the great Chinese merchant, and told him 
that my father had buried a nameless Chinaman on the New 
England coast. He gave me his friendship for what my father 
had done for one of his race. That was all." 

" But the vision, the ghost ! " said many voices. 

" That is easily explained. I saw a picture of Hoqua in a 
Chinese print as I was falling asleep in the chamber in the 
chimney, and I had a vivid dream. Here is the picture. Father 
kept it." 

" Aid en," said the old man, " do you think that when every 
good thing that we do is rewarded in this world, as we see it 
here to-day, that we shall not be remembered by those who have 
passed on to the other side ? " 

'• It may be so, as a matter of spiritual law." 

" Oh, don't use such cold words as those, Alden ! It is ' ghost 
thanks.' Look up to the hill, to the chimney, and the grave- 
stone ! Alden, look ! It is ' ghost thanks ' — all ' ghost thanks ! ' 
Those that ' are for us are more than those that be against us,' 
as the Scripture says of the mountain vision. It is good to have 
friends on the other side. They bring thanksgivings — how, I 
cannot tell, Alden." 

The Fates had woven. 

Are there " ghost thanks ? " 



CHAPTER lY. 

THE SILENT MYSTERY OF THE FUNG SHUI — 
ANCESTOR WORSHIP 

Ah Hue related some stories that at once greatly surprised 
and also enlightened our intending travellers. 

Charles, whose penetrating mind wished to learn all Chinese 
popular terms that represented what he had not comprehended, 
said, one evening : • 

" Ah Hue, what is Fung Shnif' 

" You have asked me a difficult question, my friend. It is a 
kind of spiritualism ; it is a universal secret belief, but it con- 
trols life everywhere in China. There are Buddhists and 
Taouists in China, and people of many beliefs, but all believe in 
the power of Fung Shui." 

" I have read that it is this belief that interferes with the 
building of railroads, the running of telegraph lines, and all 
manner of improvements, but that few English people seem to 
know what it is." 

"It is true. Every district in China has its cults and 
religious forms. Go among the Buddhists. A friend will 
meet you and say : 

" ' Good morning. Amidabha. 

" ' Have you had your rice ? Amidabha. 

^' ' Good-bye. Amidabha.' 

"He says 'Amidabha' as a charm to ward off evil, and 
especially the evil that he thinks may be in a foreign bar- 
barian. 

84 



THE SILENT MYSTEBY OF THE FUNG SHUI 85 

" The believer in Fung Shui is silent, but he would lose 
everything rather than to interfere with what he believes to be 
the good influences of Fung Shui. 

" An unknown evil happens, the people say to each other 
* Fung Shui,' and what does that mean ? 

" The nutmeg-trees, after being cultivated for years and 
yielding great fortunes, were blasted. 

" ' Fung Shui.' 

'' To one fell great good fortune. 

" ' Fung Shui.' 

" Fung Shui exists everywhere, he is believed to be the cause 
of all that happens. 

" It represents the universal belief that spirits good or evil 
preside over all the events of life. To have the good-will of 
spirits is to prosper. 

"In order to have the good-will of spirits it is believed that 
the graves of the dead must be protected, and that there is a 
protecting influence in the graves of good spirits. The progress 
of civilization which would disturb graves is a thing of horror. 
They who would break this divine spell are enemies to the 
human family — 'foreign devils.' 

" The heavens, as the Chinese think, rule the earth through 
spirits. These spirits of the dead employ all natural powers to 
exercise good or evil. 

" The Chinese believe that the spirits of the dead hover 
around the living. People draw to themselves spirits of their 
own kind. 

" Hence arose a silent priesthood, Fung Shui men, who claim 
to know the secrets of the unseen world, and how to lead the 
spirits of dead ancestors to exercise a happy influence over the 
living. These men move graves. If the dead be not well 
buried, or if their raised limbs be not suitably cared for, it is 
believed that they do not exercise their fullest powers for good. 



86 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" Hence, the evil of evils is to disturb the grave of a happy 
soul who exercises good influence over the living. A Fung 
Shuist would sacrifice a railroad for a grave. 

" To live among good, willing spirits in this world is his 
delight. He feels that his ancestors form an invisible world 
about him, and he lives so as to meet their approval and cause 
them to be happy. Do you get a glimpse now of this great, 
silent, powerful belief that controls the Chinese mind and 
character?" 

" Was this the doctrine of Confucius ?" asked Charlie. 

" No, this belief is one of the most ancient in China ; it arose 
before Confucius. Confucius taught a system of morals ; that 
we should treat others as though they were ourselves. To him 
the heavens were God, and to obey the will of our noblest 
ancestors was our highest duty. He strengthened the ancient 
and popular belief in seeking the good-will of spiritual powers. 
Confucius was a philosopher." 

" There is some truth in the Chinese view of the spiritual 
world. Why should not missionaries accept as much of it as is 
true, and build upon it ? Christ did that ; he came not to 
destroy what was true in the Hebrew religion of the past, but 
to fulfil it." 

" I cannot answer you that, my young man. Truth is 
truth wherever found, and it is the destiny of the light of 
the truth to grow. The Chinese can learn more from us 
than we can from them, but we can learn many things from 
them. 

" Enlightenment has many sides, and is a matter of slow 
growth. Men are studying the truth in everything, and civiliza- 
tion is finding some good everywhere. All travel tends to good, 
and he who carries into travel a good soul is a missionary. 
The world grows by those who seek others' good. The mission- 
ary spirit tends to good everywhere." 



THE PRAYING -WHEEL 87 

Charlie's next question was one that startled all but Ah Hue, 
on account of their ignorance. 
It was — 

" What is the praying-wheel of Tibet ? " 
To which Ah Hue furnished very interesting information. 



THE PRAYING -WHEEL 

The earth turns on its axis, the planets on their axes, and the 
earth and planets turn around the sun, and the sun himself may 
be revolving around some other system of gravitating worlds. 
All are turning ; all things move in a circle, and form a ring, 
emblem of endless existence. 

Life itself moves in a circle. To praise the author of all 
life is to give merit, to pray for righteousness is to gain merit. 
So say the Buddhists of Tibet and of the neighboring lands of 
the " roof of the world." There are four hundred million 
Buddhists in the world, and of these an immense number seek 
to gain merit by praying-wheels. 

One can see and hear the praying- wheels everywhere in these 
lands, in deserts, on mountains, and on rivers. 

An English book has been written on Buddhist praying- 
wheels. 

It shows a like symbolism in all lands ; in the book of Ezekiel, 
and in Egyptian and ancient literature. So said Ah Hue. 

What is a praying-wheel ? It is a cylinder in which are 
placed psalms, or paper poems of praise to the Supreme Power. 

It may be as large as a tower and need the strength of many 
lamas to turn it, or like a barrel, when it may be turned by 
water, but it is usually a small cylinder, such as may be carried 
about. 

When he is resting the lama turns the praying-wheel. In 



88 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

the morning he praises heaven by turning the praying-wheel 
with its hymn of praise. In the evening he does the same. 
When he feels his human needs in temptation or in sickness he 
turns this wheel. Alone, he keeps it turning — he gathers 
merit to his soul whenever and wherever he turns his wheel. 

A foolish and useless superstition, says the reader. But we 
are not sure. He lacks in the highest sense the right concep- 
tion of God because it has not been revealed to him, but his 
praying-wheel keeps his thoughts on sacred things as far as he 
may know them. His soul craves worship, and he finds it in 
the praying- wheel. All things are turning; his prayers must 
turn with them. 

He expects to fill a cycle of destiny, and then he wishes to 
rise ; so he puts his prayer for this higher life into the turning 
wheel, and prays in this way from youth to age ; he begins to 
turn the wheel as a child, he turns it with his dying hands. 

His ancestors turned the wheel. It has become the most 
sacred thing in his existence to him. He loves to hear it whirl, 
and its bell tinkle, when it has a bell. 

The great lama temples are full of turning wheels. 

Some of these wheels are great upright cylinders, having 
ten thousand prayers or ascriptions of praise. They burr 
like a factory, and the turning of the wheels are like music 
— the music of the wheels — the music of the expected higher 
life. 

The Catholic rosary has a somewhat like suggestion ; even 
the Protestant prayer-book may be used like a turning wheel. 

The pious in Tibet place these wheels in the currents of the 
rivers so that they may be continually praying for the progress 
of his soul. They are hung in trees — the more prayers the 
greater merit. 

It is an interesting sight to see in some desert place a solitary 
Buddhist turning his wheel in the sunset. He may give it to 



THE BUDDHIST BIRD — A JATAKA STORY 89 

the wind to turn, but he listens to the rotary music while he 
provides his evening meal. 

Then he lies down and still listens to the wheel. His thoughts 
rise far away. He dreams. He fancies that he will be beyond 
trouble when he is reborn. Is not his wheel turning and 
gathering merit for him ? He will be reborn an angel and 
beyond the temptations of the body. Is not his merit wheel 
turning ? He will no more hunger or thirst. There will be no 
more deserts in the bright regions above and beyond. So his 
wheel turns and turns and sleep falls upon him, and he awakens 
to hear the wheel still answering his desire for merit. He pre- 
pares his simple food for breakfast to the sound of the turning 
wheel. So his life goes on in prayer. 

Some one has said that if a missionary could convince the 
Asiatic world that Christ was a Buddha, the four hundred mil- 
lions of Buddhists would be converted on that great day, and all 
of the followers of Gautama become Christians. This is not true. 
Yet we may not despise the praying, if we may not make " end- 
less repetitions as the heathen do ; " we hear the soul of a 
human being " travelling and groaning " in the praying- wheel, 
like Ajax crying for light, like the call of the Islamite in the 
open chamber of the minaret ; the unborn desire of the soul, the 
spiritual intuition, the irrepressible longing and harp note, is in 
the praying- wheel. 



THE BUDDHIST BIRD — A JATAKA STORY 

Once upon a time in the days of Brahma-datta, a Buddha 
came to life again and was born in the form of a bird, and he 
became a Counsellor Bird. 

He made his home in a lofty tree that produced a great 
amount of sheltering foliage, and dropped this foliage in heaps 



90 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

of dry leaves every year, and a great number of birds built their 
nests in the tree. 

Then said the Buddha bird : 

" What would happen to us, birds, if the dry leaves on the 
ground should get on fire ? " 

And they considered the matter and saw their danger. 

There was a wise bird among them, or one so regarded, 
and the birds told him what the Buddhist bird had said, and he 
answered them : 

" The heaps of dry leaves will never take fire. The Coun- 
sellor Bird sees a crocodile in a drop of water." 

The tree grew strong, and there were two branches that 
crossed each other, and rubbed against each other. 

Now when the wind blew heavily, these two branches rubbed 
against each other so violently as to produce heat. 

The Counsellor Bird discovered this, and he called the birds 
together and said : 

" birds, when the wind is high the two branches rub together 
and produce heat. What would happen were the dry winds to 
blow high and long ? The tree is full of dead leaves and 
branches, and under it are piles of dry twigs and dead leaves. 
There is danger that the tree in a dry wind that should blow 
high and long would take fire. birds, let us remove our 
nests." 

And the birds again took counsel with the wise bird, and the 
wise bird said : 

" There is no danger here, and this tree is the king of the 
forest. He sees a crocodile in a drop of water." 

So the birds said to the Counsellor Bird : 

"This is a goodly tree, and there is no danger here, whether 
the wind blow wet or dry. You see a crocodile in a drop of 
water." 

The Counsellor Bird removed his nest to another tree in a 



THE BUDDHIST BIBD — A JATAKA STOBT 91 

solitary place, where there were no limbs that rubbed against 
each other. 

Many years passed. The other tree grew old and dry. Great 
heaps of fallen limbs were piled up under it. The bird colony 
grew there and nests were multiplied. 

At last in the nesting season there came from the desert a 
high dry wind, and it blew all the day, and the branches of the 
tree that rubbed against each other creaked. 

And the dry wind blew during the night, and the next day it 
continued to blow. 

In the twilight of the second day, it still being dry, a smoke 
began to rise from the great tree. A little later, and the tree 
was on fire. Then the birds became frantic. They flew up 
into the air, crying, " Our nests, our nests ! the tree is on 
fire ! " 

The tree blazed. It dropped burning wood to the ground, 
and set on fire the fallen branches and leaves there. Then as 
the dry wind continued to blow, the whole tree and the forest 
became enveloped in flames, and the birds perished and their 
nests were burned up. 

But the nest of the Buddha bird in the solitary place was not 
injured, only the smoke encompassed the tree. 

But the wise bird of the great tree escaped, and when the dry 
wind ceased and the rain began to fall, the wise bird came to see 
the Buddha bird. 

" Our tree is in ruins," said the wise bird, " as you predicted 
it would be. I thought that you saw a crocodile in a drop of 
water." 

" I did." 

" But how do you see these things ? A crocodile cannot 
be in a drop of water — the greater cannot be in the 
less." 

" But a little crocodile may be in a drop of water, and a drop 



92 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

of water may become a pond. The cause of the fire was long 
ago in the tree, and the power to produce the fire has ever 
been- in the air. It has been given to me to see the great 
in the little. I do not argue, I see. I was born a Buddha 
bird.'^ 



CHAPTER V. 

CHIXA, THE WOJ^DEEEUL 

The kingdom celestial ! the empire gained power by the arts 
rather than by arms, that grew from within rather than from 
without, and sought peace rather than conquest. Manchuria 
was old in the days of Moses and the Exodus. 

Printing came from China, the invention of gunpowder, the 
wearing of beautiful fabrics of silk, the handicraft of pottery, 
the beverao'e of tea. China had a civilization when the now 
boastful civilized nations were barbarous. She made her law 
of state and life the principles of the greatest philosopher ever 
sent to her, — Confucius, — and his teaching was " never to do 
to another what you would not have done to yourself." 

Buddhism swept over her and entered the heart of her vast 
populations. She began to worship ancestors, and to make the 
tombs of the virtuous her shrines. She came to the belief that 
the dead knew, and that to please the souls of the departed was 
to fulfil the highest life. 

She did not go forth to invade, but she was invaded. To 
keep her own peace, she built a wall thirty feet high and 
twelve thousand miles long, protected by fortress towers. 

But the savage Mongols broke in upon her peace ; the rest- 
less Mohammedan conquerors strewed her plains with ruins and 
bones, and the fierce Tartars filled her thrones. She sunk again 
and again, but she rose China. She was true to her own. 

We say that she is falling again, but it has happened before. 

93 



94 • TEAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

It is the law of China to be baffled, but to rise again ; she arises 
China, but hardly the same China as before. 

Missionaries of noble purpose have gone to her, like Morrison, 
and have sought to teach her people the principles of the higher 
life, but the Christian nations have again and again treated her 
like barbarians, forcing opium upon her, and robbing her of 
her honest and peaceful products, and so hindered the work 
of those who would lift her spirit into the light of the Gospel 
hopes. 

She has had splendid rulers, — men who have seen what it 
was to be noble from the light in their own souls. 

Except the teachings of Christ, which are divine and the best 
for all men, the " powers " have little to carry to her, and their 
selfishness makes the noble work of the missionary hard. 

So she arose in the far past, has been crushed in her pacific 
isolation, but has arisen, and stood. She accepted Buddhism as 
a higher teaching ; she would probably accept Christianity, were 
it presented to her after the Christian example of the powers 
that profess it, as the highest teaching. 

Writers and travellers tell the world of her superstitions, and 
put such travesties in the place of her true life. Most nations 
have, or have had, superstitions as gross, policies of state as 
cunning, and as great selfishness and greed. It seems as though 
the Western world had combined to see only what is grotesque 
in China, and to grind her like the Tartars beneath their heel. 

She appeals to the conscience of humanity, .and to help to 
make China noble and great is to make the Western world 
Christian in its national policies, so as to give Christian teachers 
power. 

The work done for the Chinese in America has had the true 
spirit of brotherhood, as has had the work of those missionaries 
who have gone to the Chinese, and said : " I come to you empty- 
handed ; I seek nothing but the good of the soul." 



CHINA THE WONDERFUL 97 

Her population is five times that of the United States. Under 
an honest Christian civilization, what might not this people be- 
come ! 

Look at her territories, — if her empire beyond the great 
wall may be so called ; Manchuria, which is practically Rus- 
sian China, Corea, Mongolia, Tibet, Turkestan, the island of 
Formosa, and her other islands. It is a wonder how these vast 
empires hold each other so firmly by the hand, as of common 
blood. The Tartar soldier guards all. 

Her magnificent river systems have few equals on earth. 
Her artificial rivers or canals are as wonderful. The great 
canal is 650 miles long ! 

The mountains of Tibet have been called " the roof of the 
world." Their peaks, many of which are higher than the sum- 
mits of the Andes, seem like pillars of the sky. 

It is a land of agriculture. The emperor opens the vernal 
year with a "golden" plough. 

The Buddhist Chinese are vegetarians. We may say that the 
lower people eat rats with chop-sticks, but some of our own 
higher people eat frog legs. The people, as a rule, live on rice, 
and the sight of an English or an American slaughter-house 
would be a shocking barbarism to them. 

They bind their feet? Yes, many do, — a woman's foot is 
only about three and one-half inches from heel to toe. The 
superstition will pass ; it is a national crime, but we have had 
crimes in our own country which China has never had, as 
slavery. 

Their practice of medicine has been empirical ? Ginseng is 
the miracle-working root, but the English physician a hundred 
years ago resorted to remedies and measures now deemed 
empirical. 

It is a government of an absolute monarch through viceroys 
and mandarins, and its only constitution is the moral code of 



98 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

Confucius ? Yes ; but civilisation has like analogies. She 
needs a government of the consensus of the people. True. 
It will slowly come. The dawn of a better day is at hand. 

She has polygamy ; so have we had, and have put our moral 
foot upon it. 

It is the unwritten law of China that — 

I. A nation should be governed by moral agency, and not by 
force of arms. 

II. That the people have a right to overthrow a wicked ruler. 

III. That the wisest and best men should be called into the 
national councils. 

lY. That peace should be the attainment of all. 

No nation approaches the great population of China which has 
so given itself to the arts of peace, as to cause little blood to 
flow. Her best houses are beautiful. 

We said in " Traveller Tales of Africa " that England owed it 
to the good of mankind to have followed the example of the mis- 
sionary Livingstone in the elevation of the African race. The 
same is true of China. The missionary Morrison set the true 
example for a Christian nation to follow, and the Chinese mind, 
apart from the influence of European commercial polities, is 
prepared to receive the highest truths of the spiritual life. 

There is one point in which Anglo-Saxon and Buddhist teach- 
ings agree, — it is that " Righteousness is revelation." The Bud- 
dhist monks and the Roman Catholic monks seek righteousness 
much in the same way, by retirement and the surrender of the 
pleasures and luxuries of the animal life. The worship of one's 
noble ancestors ignores the highest worship, but it has a princi- 
ple of truth. 

It is said that the present attitude of the Western world 
toward China will bring into discredit the honest efforts of 
Christian missions. No, it will not ; the highest truth is des- 
tined to be accepted at last by all men, however unworthy may 





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CHINA THE WONDERFUL 101 

be the conduct of some men who profess it. Righteousness is 
revelation, and the teaching that, " if any man will to do God's 
will, he shall hnow^'' is truth that can never be discredited or 
superseded. False teachers and selfish propagandists will have 
their day, but the true missionary possesses China and the world. 
The work that the missions have begun will fill the empire. 

Let us attempt to show you how open to conviction of higher 
truths is the Chinese heart, even when the teaching is mingled 
with ambition and superstition. 



CHAPTER VI. 

TAE - PING - WANG, WHO THOUGHT HIMSELF A 
MESSIAH — A JATAKA STOEY 

In the middle of the nineteenth century there arose a re- 
markable character in China, Tae-ping-wang, who read some 
Christian tracts, and, instead of becoming converted to Christi- 
anity, thought himself a Messiah, and went to preach to his own 
people. 

He thought that he had had a vision from God, and the new 
gospel that he set forth to teach had in it many principles that 
command respect. He tried to abolish opium smoking, he 
opposed the slave trade, he decried the wearing of the pigtail 
and crippling the feet. 

He called himself the " king of heaven on earth " or the 
" Heavenly King." He began to have followers ; his faith in 
himself grew, and he made the mistake of resorting to arms to 
enforce the authority of his supposed new Messiahship. 

He swept over a part of China with a victorious army. The 
Imperialists rose to put him down as a rebel, which he was, and 
Charles George Gordon, an English soldier of fortune, was 
placed in command of the imperial army, with the sanction of 
Li Hung Chang, the great viceroy. 

The career of Gordon in China was one of victory. He 
came to be called " Chinese Gordon." He carried a walking- 
stick which the Chinese imperial army believed to be a magic 
wand. When he waved it there was nothing that could stand 
against him — so the " ever victorious army " came to believe. 

102 



THE ILL WILL OF A QUAIL 105 

The revolt was called the Tae-ping rebellion, and Gordon's 
men became known as the " ever victorious army," and is so 
called in popular books. 

The rebellion was practically ended with the fall of Soochow. 
Brave were the rebel wangs, or kings, who defended Soochow. 
One of these, Moto Wang, led his army without shoes or stock- 
ings, and his followers fought " like lions." 

The " Heavenly King " fell, but the Tae-ping rebellion, which 
cost the Tae-pings the lives of ten thousand men, shows what a 
following a leader who had true spiritual genius and an unselfish 
purpose might have. Had the great rebel become a Christian 
and not have appealed to force, he might perhaps have wrought 
a notable work in China, and placed his name among the 
immortals. The true friend of China may learn much from the 
" Tae-ping rebellion," as this uprising was called. The heart of 
China is open to the teachings of true men. 

These facts and thoughts were presented to the club which 
had been formed under the influence of the Barnards to study 
China before the family made their journey to the Flowery King- 
dom by the new way of Russia. 

Ah Hue was asked to relate a Jataka story at each meeting 
of the club. As he had five hundred Jataka tales from which 
to select his parables, he never failed to present an illustration 
in keeping with the subject. 



JATAKA STORY — THE ILL WILL OF A QUAIL 

There was once a good elephant that became a leader of a 
herd, and he and his herd were friendly to all the world. 

But there followed the herd a rogue elephant who bore ill 
will to all things, and he did mischief continually. 



106 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

A little quail with a brood, seeing the herd of elephants 
coming, put up her wing and said to the good elephant : 

" Spare my young ! " 

" I will stand over them," said the good elephant, " until the 
herd passes by. Not one of them shall harm you." 

So he stood over the little quails, and the herd passed by. 

" But," he said, " there follows us a rogue elephant. If he 
should chance along, beware of him." 

After a time the rogue elephant chanced along. 

The little quail put up her wing, and said : 

" Spare my young ! " 

" Spare your young ? " said the rogue elephant. " No, I will 
kill them and trample them," and he killed the little quails and 
trampled them into the earth. 

" You are a danger to all living things," said the quail. " I 
will cause your fall that other creatures may be spared." 

" You cause my fall, you, you ? a little quail ! " 

The little quail went to the crow. 

" The rogue elephant," said she, " has killed my little ones — 
he kills everything he meets. We must stop this cruelty. 
There are other quails with innocent little ones." 

" How will you destroy the rogue elephant ? " asked the crow. 

" Do you fall upon his eyebrows and pick out his eyes." 

Then the crow fell upon the eyebrows of the rogue elephant 
and picked out his eyes, and he became blind. 

Then the little quail went to the frog and told her story, and 
said that they must destroy the cruel beast. 

" The rogue elephant will thirst," said she. " Go to the 
mountain path, when you see him coming, and croak at the edge 
of the precipice. He will think that the edge of the precipice is 
the margin of a pond, and he will attempt to go down as he will 
think to drink, and he will fall over and be destroyed." 

The frog did as bidden. The sightless elephant was burning 




A TARTAR OF THE CHINESE ARMY 



^A 



THE ILL WILL OF A QUAIL 109 

with thirst and he knew not where to find water. He listened 
to hear a frog croak. He heard croakings up the mountain 
path, and followed the sound. 

He came to the edge of the precipice. 

" Here is a pond," said he. 

He stepped on the edge of the precipice. It fell, and he 
rolled over the rocks into a deep chasm, and was broken by the 
fall, and died. 

It is well to have the good-will of everything, even a little 
quail. 



CHAPTER YII. 

SECEET COEEA — THE HERMIT :N^ATI0N — HOW THEY 
TRAVEL THERE 

Ah Hue had travelled in China extensively ; he knew the 
routes from city to city ; he had also visited Corea. 

At one of the meetings of the China Study Club, he gave an 
account of a Corean journey. It was like a tale of a kingdom 
of mystery. 

He said : 

" There is one peninsula of China of only about eighty thou- 
sand square miles, about which the great world knows little, and 
whose people know but little about the great world, and desire 
to know less. 

" It is Corea, and the Corean desires above all things not to 
be discovered, pitied, or helped, but to be left to himself. It is 
washed by the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea, and the Gulf of 
Pechili, and is a neighbor to Manchuria. The climate is glacial 
on the north ; it rains there in torrents ; the forest rivers rush 
and roar ; its chief product is hemp. 

" The people attend a great fair held yearly in Manchuria, 
and I once went into the peninsula with the people returning 
from the Manchurian fair to the capital of Corea, which is 
Seoul. The long procession of pilgrims accompanied a man- 
darin, who was borne on poles by six attendants. 

" A guard in rugged clothing attended the caravan, as some 
local disturbances had occurred in the coast country. 

110 



1 



SECRET COREA 113 

'* Some of the provisions had been carried to the fair in ships, 
and these ships had been towed by a steam launch or tug, a 
quiet-looking craft, with a white awning. 

" There are some objects of grandeur in the secret land, 
among them the great gate of Seoul, the ancient city, which 
towers aloft in a mantle of ancient greenery as on lifted wings. 

" The better quarters of Seoul are picturesque, the houses are 
low, and are constructed of glass and tiles in light fanciful 
frames. 

" The principal street and square of Seoul rises fantastically 
against the rude and barren mountains. Here may be seen, on 
the going out or the coming in of a caravan, the characteristics 
of the forbidden peninsula. 

" The palace of the King of Corea in Seoul has a unique 
beauty, and seems about to rise from the earth. It stands amid 
fair gardens, and seems more like a fancy or a dream than a 
real structure. 

" The way from Manchuria to Seoul, the capital, is in part by 
the Yang-Kiang, and the travel on this river is very simple and 
primitive. 

" The horse swims the river by the ferry-boat, with his burden 
on his back, and the ferry-boat is a simple scow. 

" The wayside houses and hostelries are walls covered with 
bamboo and grasses. 

" The journeys of officers of state are performed in palanquins, 
which make a display of elegance, and are attended by officers 
and guards in very imposing uniforms and implements of war. 

" There are but few English people who travel in Corea, 
except missionaries and merchants. The journey is perilous 
outside of the road to the capital, and especially along the 
mountainsides. Tigers abound in the silent rugged forests, 
and a tiger spirit in the people makes the foreigner feel how 
unTvelcome he is. 



114 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

'' The official traveller at night is attended by torch-bearers, 
and by a unique-looking guard at all times. The torch-bearing 
guards, which sometimes attend funerals, present a ghost-like 
appearance. 

" The guard may be musical, and, if so, will announce the 
coming and going of a favored guest by a chant that might 
well inspire terror. 

" A Corean bed is an elegant affair, low, and having an air of 
comfort. It recalls a bed of state in Europe in the middle ages. 
The screens in a nobleman's house are beautifully decorated. 

" A Corean country post-office is one of the simplest con- 
veniences in the world. It is a post or pole, with a mat or 
basket ; the Corean deposits his letter or parcel, and it is col- 
lected by the postman or owner ; no one seems to steal letters 
in Corea." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MAXCHUEIA, THE PEOVINCE OE DESTINY — GINSENG, 
THE WONDEKFUL HEEB THAT HEALED DISEASES 
AND AEEESTED DEATH 

Mr. Barnard loved to study the politics of the world. His 
son Charles had shared these studies until he was almost as 
familiar with the current events of Europe, and even of Asia, 
as with those of his own State. 

'' He who visits Manchuria," said his father to him one day, 
" may see the beginning of a new world of thought and action. 
He who discovered the use of electricity found a new world, as 
surely as Columbus did. Steam will be outworn in a few dec- 
ades, if not in a few years. 

" I would rather see Russian China than China, and the new 
parts of the Yellow Sea than any other part of the world. If I 
cannot live in the future, I can anticipate the future. You may 
live to see all these world changes that I can only anticipate. 

" Not only the steam-engine, but all the vehicles of the past, 
are likely to follow the stage-coach, with its leather boot for the 
mail-bag, and strong straps for trunks. The sedan-chairs will 
disappear from the streets of China ; even the voiture will go. 
Did you ever see a Chinese voiture ? Look at this picture of 
one in the ' Tour de Monde.' 

" As great will be the changes on the water-courses. Look 
again at the Chinese canal-boats in the ' Tour de Monde.' See 
their great blankets of sails. The dynamo will soon be the 
impelling power of all work like that." 



116 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

They studied these curious modes of conveyance, then became 
merry over something else he had found in the same volume. 

" And here," he said, " is an express wagon. What will 
become of that ? " 

" That too, Charlie, will have to go." 

They studied another picture — it was the beautiful harbor of 
"Vladivostok, lately a sea of silence, now covered with giant 
steamers and gathering sails. How noble looked that city of 
the sea, under the Asiatic sky ! The flags of the jealous nations 
hung in the semi-clouded air. 

Manchuria was the land of the wonderful ginseng. Centuries 
ago, as we have shown, this herb was thought not only to have 
magic properties, to cure sicknesses, and to arrest death, but 
also to possess the gift of immortality. 

It outweighed gold in value, and when the crop was exhausted 
on the damp lands of Manchuria and Corea, the Chinese sought 
for it in Virginia and New England, and ships from Boston, 
loaded with ginseng, unlocked the trade door of China in 
Canton, as we have sought to illustrate in a story. 

The club studied the pictures on Chinese porcelain, especially 
the mandarin plates of white and blue, which picture the story 
of the " magic isle," and the persecuted lovers who were changed 
by the '' Spirit of the air " into birds. 

They also studied the Chinese toys and images made of jade, 
the deep green hard substance of which many idols are made. 
Jade toys and ornaments are common in American stores. 



CHAPTER IX. 
A VEKY STRANGE STOEY 

Among the people who attended the Chinese studies at the 
house of Mr. Barnard was an old Boston merchant who had 
made a small fortune in trading with China in his middle years, 
and who had known a curious character called Doctor Wintle- 
house in his early manhood. At one of the meetings of the 
club he brought what seemed to be a large green brick. 

" I have found what looks to be Chinese characters on this 
brick," said he to Ah Hue. " I thought that you might be able 
to read them." 

Ah Hue's face took on a peculiar look. 

"That is jade," said he. " It is not a brick — it is a prayer- 
box. Let me open the window and hold it up to a current 
of air." 

Ah Hue opened the window, focussed the box, and a whirring 
sound came from the box. 

" There is a prayer-wheel inside of the jade box," said he. 
" Some Chinaman used it as a charm against evil spirits. May 
I ask where you found the jade box ? " 

" It was found among the ruins of a chimney," said the old 
tea merchant. " There were several green bricks, as we called 
them, found in the same place. They were removed from the 
rubbish of an old chimney, and put . into a new one, but they 
broke." 

" This box would never break," said Ah Hue. " It is made 

117 



118 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

of hard, heavy material, jade — green jade. It must have been 
a very thin jade to break." 

" Let me relate to you the strange tale of this brick. It is 
associated with a mystery, which it was once said could never 
be explained after natural laws. Now, I hold that all mysteries 
somehow follow laws." 

He then proceeded to tell the strange tale of 



THE JADE BRICK, OR THE HOUSE ON RUMNEY 

MARSH 

" RoMNEY Marsh " they called it, or " Rumney Marsh." It 
was in the days of Doctor Wintlehouse, who lived there, and we 
used to visit Boston together. 

We had been wandering through Boston streets, and I had 
been pointing out to my interesting visitor the remains of old 
Boston, or of Boston town of the last century, that can be seen 
to-day. 

We had been to the place where the old Province House stood, 
and had found in a narrow alley, just off" Washington Street, 
with its hurrying crowds, a bit of brick and mortar that formed 
a part of the mansion of the ten royal governors as described in 
Hawthorne's " Twice Told Tales." In connection with the 
house of bygone grandeur and mysteries, we had spoken of the 
strange tales of Sir William Phipps, and of the " Province 
House Indian," the latter a famous vane, now at Ridge 
Hill Farms, that veered in the air in the days of provincial 
prosperity. 

" Poore purchased the Indian," said my friend. Doctor 
Wintlehouse, " Ben : Perley Poore. He stocked his rambling 
house at Ridge Hill Farms with such old New England relics. 
He had a mind that fed upon the past ; that read the new in the 



THE JADE BRICK 119 

old. Did it ever occur to you, my friend, that boards have 
souls ? " 

" What do you mean, Doctor Wintlehouse ? " 

" Timber of houses, old furniture, pictures, and such things. 
All material things where families have lived are bodies of the 
past; they also hold the spirit of the past, like natural tele- 
phones. Intense events of family history are impressed upon 
them. 

" If a board in an old house had been struck with a hammer," 
he continued, " the impression is left upon it. If a secret 
tragedy had happened in a room, the timber, boards, and furni- 
ture in that room receive the impression of it, and reveal it to 
sensitive natures in vague and mysterious ways, as natural 
telephones ; to supersensitive people, or people in some super- 
sensitive condition of mind, in wakeful hours of the night or in 
the first coming to consciousness in the early morning, or in the 
condition of dreams, the active events of the past history of 
rooms reappears. Ghost stories arise in that way." 

" Doctor Wintlehouse," said I, " you interest me. How 
strange it is that you should introduce to me such a subject as 
this in a crowded street, when I have in mind a mystery that 
is giving me some secret trouble, that completely baffles your 
theory." 

"How?" 

" I am spending the summer in a new house at Revere on a 
hill overlooking the sea, and were it an old house I would say 
that it is the abode of some baleful influence." 

He seemed to be at once interested in the subject that I had 
introduced. 

" Doctor, you know what my views are of such phenomena. 
There never was a ghost in the world. Dead people do not 
reappear in buttons made in factories, and cloth woven in looms, 
or in leather shoes, and steeple hats." 



120 TBAVELLER TALES OF CHINA ' 

I was disposed to accept the doctor's theory, when the very- 
strange experience through which I had been passing came back 
to my mind. 

" Doctor Wintlehouse," said I, " your views may have some 
force, but I have in my mind now a story to tell you that will 
make clear to you that these mysteries are merely of the im- 
agination. Doctor, if ever a man lived in a house that could be 
said to be haunted, I am doing so now. That house is a new 
one — it was built only last year — my aunt and I are the first 
people that ever lived there." 

" What have you seen there ? " 

" Doctor, you may think me disordered in mind, but a man 
with a crooked back, as of another generation, comes to me in 
my dreams at night. The room grows suddenly light as he 
comes. It is early morning light that seems to be there, such 
light as comes in the breaking of a day in June." 

" That is not strange. Darkness is full of particles of light. 
We see with our inner vision — darkness and light are illusions. 
The soul may have light in darkness. But how does the man 
look ? " 

'' ' Hurry ' — he keeps saying — ' I must hurry.' He carries 
a hammer. There was a picture of a man like him on the old 
smoke-house wall." 

"What does he do?" 

" He pounds brick." 

" There are no bricks in your room ? " 

" No, doctor, but this strange being which I nightly see just 
as I am about to go to sleep, or just as I am waking up, just as 
I seem to be losing consciousness or to be gaining it again, comes 
and goes without doors — he appears in the room, he carries 
with him always a hammer, and he pounds brick. 

" Doctor Wintlehouse, I want that you should visit me, and 
pass a single night in that fresh, pleasant, new room. You are 



THE J ABE BRICK 121 

a student of life. You believe, like Carlyle, that matter is but 
spirit bodied forth. You hold that the spirit is everything, and 
all objective life is merely the necessity, the spiritual condition 
— thought form. If you should not meet with any unusual 
experience in that new chamber, it will do you good to awake in 
the morning and see the sun come up over Nahant and the sea. 
Spend Independence Day with me, and avoid the noise of the 
city. 

" To meet your views, doctor, that spiritual force comes back 
again, you must have the environment of things that are old. 
It is old boards, old furniture, old rooms and chimneys, old 
chests and pictures, that hold the spirit of intense events, and 
give form to it and reveal it in still hours to sensitive souls. In 
my house everything seems to be new. Not only does every- 
thing seem to be new, but everything is bright there now. It is 
summer. The hill is green. The sea birds wheel and scream 
in their joyous life in the clear air. The ocean is a splendor. 
The sails pass to and fro in clear view. The people are 
happy in the cottages of the neighborhood. Excursionists come 
and go. The air ripples with the laughter of the bathers in the 
surf. You will be likely to have an experience there which will 
change all your views of life. Doctor Wintlehouse. Will you 
come ? " 

" Yes, my good friend, I am an overworked man. My prac- 
tice among the mentally diseased oppresses me. It is a period 
of the year when diseases take strange forms and when my 
patients most test my skill. I have no fear of any manifesta- 
tions that come from the invisible world. T would not hesitate 
to sleep in the oldest house of tragedy in Massachusetts — not 
that I would not feel the influences of the past in the rooms, 
but because a spirit, whether embodied in the flesh or in a 
board, can do me no harm. The spiritual world after my view 
is all around us, and you no more see the substance of the spirit 



122 TBAVELLEB TALES OF CHINA 

in living beings than in beings that do not appear to material 
eyes. I see your form, you see mine ; forms come and go — 
vanish in the light. There may be twice as many spirits as 
there are forms in this room. Let us go." 

We parted at the Mather tomb in the Burying-ground on 
Copp's Hill, as we were going different ways. 

" You will spend the July holidays with me ? " I added, as I 
took his hand in parting. 

'^ Yes, yes, my friend, your story interests me, apart from the 
fact that I am always happy to be with you. You have ears to 
hear what I have to say, and I love to think my thoughts to a 
sensitive and sympathetic soul. Do you know — I believe that 
good influences adhere to things as well as evil ones ? You 
smile, but I do not doubt that the things handled by St. Paul, 
as recalled in the Bible, may have a healing influence. Yes, 
yes, I will come, and I will sleep in the room of mysteries, if 
you will put me there. It matters not to me what I may see — 
all outward things are clothing ; so is the human body. I will 
come ! " 

I sat down on the wall of Copp's Hill Burying-ground, after 
he had gone toward the ferry. 

What were these night visions I had been seeing ? Was my 
mind clear, or had I been subject to hallucinations ? If a new 
house revealed to a supersensitive mind the same phenomena 
as have so many times been recorded of an old one, then such 
things must be matters of the imagination alone. 

I was mentally disturbed. I went to a lecture in Boston that 
evening, and returned to my place on the Revere hills, over- 
looking the sea. 

My curious talk with the doctor had not tended to quiet my 
mind. I approached the house with a secret fear. 

My aunt met me at the door. Her unusually calm face wore 
a perplexed look. I had scarcely been seated when she said : 



THE JADE BRICK 123 

"Percy, are there any loose bricks in the house?" 

" No, aunt ; why are you thinking of bricks ? " 

" Percy, I don't know. It is all very strange — but I have 
a feeling as of bricks out of place." 

Such an answer under other circumstances could have con- 
veyed no meaning to my mind. But I understood the feeling, 
and it was not without apprehension that I took my light and 
went, that beautiful summer night, to my room. 

I threw myself upon the bed. The strange words of my aunt 
disturbed me. 1 had not yet told her of the nightly appear- 
ance in my room. This thought gave a darker shade to my 
apprehensions. 

The air was still. The full moon, like a golden night sun, 
was rising over the waters and dark islands. The revolving 
lights in the ocean way caught my eye as I sat up in bed and 
looked through the window. 

My room had two windows. One of them commanded a far 
view of the sea, which, in Boston Harbor, is like a floating city. 
The other looked down the hill on the lovely villas and green 
orchards of Revere. 

Under the hill was a large, tall-roofed house, black with 
age, that may still be seen. It is one of the oldest houses in 
America, and has been often pictured — artists love it, in its 
solemn decay. It had never been painted ; its sides seem about 
to drop out here and there, but it holds the sturdy old New 
England character. I think that the house is associated with 
old-time merrymakings, but not with any tradition of ghost 
lore. It has great historical interest. 

Its green fields and orchards have a tradition. The second 
battle of the Revolution, under the direction of General Putnam, 
was fought on Rumney Marsh, and this marsh was a part of 
that wide acreage of the sea lands that comprised Chelsea, and 
much of what is now Revere and possibly Winthrop. The 



124 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

tradition is that the ploughmen have found cannon-balls in the 
fields. Such a thing would not be unlikely, as the battle was 
between a small war vessel and a fleet of boats on the British 
side and General Putnam's soldiers on the American side. 
Putnam himself brought with him two cannon to the borders of 
the marshes. He captured the British vessel, and caused her 
to be burned. In this engagement, of which more might be 
made in history, the British lost twenty men. The battle 
of Rumney Marsh took place May 27, 1775. General Putnam 
gave a curious account of it, in which he told a story of how he 
waded through the deep mud of the marsh ; a story worthy 
of companionship with his adventure with the wolf. 

It is said that the house was used for the storage of arms and 
ammunition after the fight at Lexington and Concord. 

I turned my eyes from the canting sails and revolving light 
afar to this ancient building. How dark and awesome it looked 
in the rising moon ! The orchards around it were dripping with 
dew, and glimmered. The serpentine stream at the foot of the 
gardens and meadows seemed like curves of liquid silver. The 
chimney rose dark against the moon like the turret of a fortress. 

I dreamed of the past. People had settled around Rumney 
Marsh before Boston was founded. A Kidd tradition was here, 
and witch tales here had been told that took the coloring of the 
lonely salt meadows. 

The two windows were open. I thought a shadow passed 
before the sea window, but the room did not become luminous 
as on previous occasions, when the form with the hammer was 
about to appear. Suddenly I heard a sound that caused the 
veins of my ears to throb. 

A heavy hammer seemed to strike the bricks of the chimney. 
A crash, as it seemed, caused the house to tremble and the brick 
chimney to rattle, as though it were falling from the middle 
part. What had happened ? Had the chimney fallen ? 



THE JADE BRICK 125 

"Percy?" 

It was aunt's voice. 

" Percy — get up — something is the matter with the bricks 
in the chimney. I have heard it before — in the daytime. The 
chimney is not firm ; it is settling ; it is falling down." 

This explanation gave me a sense of relief. It offered a clew 
to a reasonable solution of the disturbances. The chimney was 
new — the mortar had not hardened. 

" I will go and look," said I, Opening the door. 

I lighted the lamp. There was an open fireplace in the room, 
and I went to it, and held the lamp under the flue, and looked up. 

There came a whirr of swallows' wings that sent down a 
shower of dust, but the chimney seemed firm, and no break in 
it appeared. 

" I see nothing," I said to my aunt. " In the morning I will 
look again." 

" I am sorry that we have hired this house for all summer," 
said she. " Somehow, Percy, I don't seem to be happy here." 

The week passed with but slight disturbances. Aunt grew 
more cheerful, and ordered a clam and fish dinner to be sent 
from one of the beach houses to the new house on Independence 
Day. 

" If we only had a flag I would hang it out to-morrow," she 
said, on July the third. " The scene of the second battle of the 
Revolution ought to be honored on that day with a flag on every 
house." 

" I expect Doctor Wintlehouse to-night," I said ; " perhaps 
we will find some bunting at the beach houses, and will decorate 
the new house to-morrow. The beaches will be thronged with 
people all day of the Fourth. There will be fireworks in the 
evening along the sea." 

" It will be dark to-morrow night," said my aunt ; " the moon 
is new. Dark nights do not seem to be so still here as others. 



126 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

I wish the doctor were here now. Can't we persuade him to 
spend the summer here ? '^ 

There was a very peculiar sound in the room. A hammer 
seemed to strike a brick, and the bricks to break and fall. 

" The same sound," said aunt, with a white face. " There is 
something wrong with the chimney." 

" There is something wrong with our imaginations, aunt. 
The doctor will set us all right!" 

There followed a crash, as if the middle of the chimney had 
fallen to the ground ; as if the middle part of it had fallen out 
and down. 

" We are followed," said my aunt. 

" By what ? " I asked. 

" I do not know — I do wish the doctor would come. Some- 
thing fell, Percy." 

" But where is the something ? " 

" It fell out and down." 

" But it did not harm us, and nothing unusual is to be seen." 

" It is very strange," said my aunt. " I do not feel as though 
I could go about my work again. Oh, Percy, let us go away." 

" I am taking the time allotted to the study of China," said 
the old merchant. " I will tell you the rest of the story on 
another evening." He turned to Ah Hue and said, " It is very 
curious." 

Ah Hue's face brightened. 

" I can see through the mystery," he said. " I think I can. 
I will say but one thing now — opium .^ " 



CHAPTER X. 
OPIUM AXD OPIUM SMUGGLING 

The suggestion of Ah Hue as the cause of the mystery of the 
old merchant's strange story led the club to study the opium 
trade of China. 

It was found that the green brick or prayer- wheel was per- 
forated, and it was also learned that the old families on the surf 
coast had a tradition of two Chinamen who had landed at Boston, 
come to Rumney Marsh, and who had disappeared, and that a 
queer old man of doubtful character had disappeared or died 
soon after. 

" Several notable events happened," said Mr. Barnard," before 
the opium war, or when China would not allow opium to be entered 
into China. At that time opium in China was very costly, and 
volumes have been written about the ways that were taken by 
the fortune-loving men to smuggle opium into China. Canes, 
the handles of umbrellas, paddings of limbs and muscles, tops of 
hats and bonnets, everything that could be used to hide the 
precious drug, and elude the eye of the mandarin, was em- 
ployed by the opium smugglers. It would not be stranger than 
other things that have happened were Ah Hue's solution of the 
mystery to be true. It is my purpose, as I said, to follow np 
the mystery in Canton. This comes the nearest to being a 
ghost story with evidence of any wonder tale that I have ever 
heard. But all things follow laws. In a tale like this it is only 
the working of the law that is mysterious." 

The beauty of Chinese home life had been vividly described to 



128 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

the Club, and Ah Hue had made a home in China a lovely thing 
to the fancy of its members. 

The enforcement of opium on China by the British govern- 
ment strongly awoke the indignation of the club. 

" It was done under the excuse of the rights of trade," said 
Mr. Barnard. " No nation has any moral right to trade with 
that which is ruinous to another nation," he continued ; " not 
more in opium than in slaves." 

In the early part of the present century, the Chinese govern- 
ment began to expostulate with the English government against 
the bringing of opium to the ports of China ; the use of opium, 
being regarded as a crime, had been forbidden by law. 

In 1821, the governor of Canton resolved to suppress the 
traffic in opium, and ordered all ships bringing opium to depart 
from the port. Thence began a struggle ending in war, in which 
Great Britain, without respect to Chinese law, compelled the 
ports of China to receive opium. 

One of the events that led up to the war was quite dramatic. 

A number of ships, with twenty thousand chests of opium on 
board, in January, 1839, lay off Canton. The Chinese authorities 
refused the bringing of the drug into the port. The English 
merchants protested against this refusal. It was decided that 
the cargoes should be delivered over to the emperor and sent to 
him. He destroyed the opium entire. The act was like the 
throwing overboard of the taxed tea in Boston Harbor. 

War followed acts like these, and it ended in compelling the 
Chinese government to pay for the opium destroyed, and to open 
five ports to the trade. 

The ruinous habit of opium smoking now spread over China, 
greatly to the injury of Christian missions, as the free use of 
opium was attributed to the injustice of a Christian country. 
The religion of a country who would tempt a great people to 
crime and moral and physical ruin for gain, lost conviction, to 




! o 



THE JADE BRICK 131 

these Chinese, who did not value truth for its own worth, or see 
that religion in its purity would preclude the use of opium, and 
of the opium trade. 

The most unselfish missionary efforts have had to contend 
against this wrong-doing on the part of those who have misrep- 
resented its spirit. The act of England has brought the religion 
of England into discredit among the Chinese viceroys and man- 
darins. All that may be said against the traffic in opium may 
also be said of the commerce in intoxicating liquors. A nation 
has no moral right to traffic in evil, and any nation that allows 
such traffic does it to its own detriment by the laws of moral 
gravitation which no human powers can ultimately resist. . 



THE JADE BRICK (continued) 

At the next meeting of the club, the old tea merchant con- 
tinued his strange story. All the members were present at an 
early hour to hear it. The peculiar mystery of the narrative 
had interested all, and Ah Hue's word " opium " had intensified 
their interest. 

He took up the narrative thus : 

Doctor Wintlehouse came. He was told of the strange sounds 
that continued to be heard in the chimney. 

It was a dark night. It rained gently but steadily. A little 
past nine o'clock Doctor Wintlehouse went to his room, and 
I followed him there and left there a well-filled lamp and a box 
of matches. 

He went directly to the fireplace in the chimney, and set down 
the lamp under the flue. He crawled into the fireplace and 
looked up the chimney. 

" Percy," he said, '' has there ever been a fire made here ? " 

" Not since we have been here." 



132 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" Percy, there are black bricks in the chimney — how came 
they here ? " 

" I cannot tell, doctor." 

" The black bricks are large, such as used to be made a gener- 
ation ago. Bricklayers do not use such bricks as those now, I 
can see. The chimney is full of them, old bricks among the 
new." 

In the morning the doctor said : 

" I heard a tapping and a click last night — nothing more. 
Who was the bricklayer ? " 

" Marvin." 

" Let us go and talk with him." 

We found Marvin under the trees by the smoke-house. 

After some holiday talk. Doctor Wintlehouse spoke to Marvin 
about the smoke-house, whose ruin was run over by " bouncing 
Bet." 

'•' They used to say that the smoke-house was haunted," said 
Marvin. " There were some curious bricks in it taken from the 
old mill house." 

The doctor showed an instant interest, 

" Tell me about the bricks," said he. 

" It was this way. The mill house became very old, like the 
one that you may see over yonder, and the owner concluded 
that it had better come down. So he had the frame taken 
down, leaving the chimney like a tower. There was a great 
bulge in the chimney, and the thing looked curious under the 
moon, and used to frighten people o' nights. The owner, 
Mr. Maverick, of the Noodle Island Mavericks, he sent for 
me one day to take down the remains of the chimney, and he 
said that if I wanted any of the bricks I might have them. I 
told him that I would like to have enough to build a smoke-house. 

" Well, it was this way. When I came to the bulge in the 
chimney, where the purple bricks were, I found a covert there. 



THE JADE BRICK 133 

and a little room, and under the floor of the room were some 
boards, and under the boards, as sure as you are livin', were 
two anatomies. The little room all tumbled out and down 
with a crash." 

" Two what ? " asked the doctor, with the face of a juryman. 
" Two what, did you say ? " 

" Two skeletons. 

" You see, it was this way : these anatomies had been there 
for a generation. How it had all happened, no one could tell 
— there were no doctors about in those days. We kind o' 
associate dead people with doctors, you know." 

The doctor smiled, even in the study of occult mysteries. 

" Mr. Marvin, who were these people ? " 

" The anatomies ? No one ever knew. The finding of 'em 
was a mystery. It scared the women folks around here con- 
siderable. No persons had been known to have disappeared in 
this place. But these two people must have come to the mill 
house in the flesh, and they left their bones there. There was 
foul play somewhere, or something was wrong, else their bodies 
would not have been concealed in that way. 

" Something strange happened in connection with these 
things. People used to speak of it afterward." 

" — What ? " asked the doctor, all nerves and excitement. 

"Well, it was- this way: many years before my time there 
lived in this same house, on the Rumney meadows, a very 
strange kind of a man. He had a crooked back. He used to 
wander about the premises nights, as though he was in a great 
hurry, repairing fences and outbuildings and the mill w^heel 
with a great hammer. His name was Pool. They called him 
Captain Pool. 

" Well, the captain died, and it was this way : the people of 
the mill used to hear his hammer o' nights, just as it sounded 
when he was livin'. Now it isn't altogether agreeable to hear 



134 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

a hammer goin' o' nights. And my old wife here, she's no- 
tional, she got a queer idea into her head that made me trouble 
at one time, — she used to think that she could hear the same 
Captain Pool pounding on the bricks in the smoke-house, in still 
nights and stormy weather. She kept dingin' at me to have 
the smoke-house taken down, and she wouldn't use it any 
more. So I let it go into decay, but she wanted me to have 
the bricks sent away. I gave the masons some of them to put 
into your house over there, under the flue." 

We came away. The doctor related the story to my aunt. 

" Doctor Wintlehouse," said the latter, " we must move 
away." 

" No," said he, in a decisive tone, " you will never be dis- 
turbed again. Mark my words, the house, hereafter, will be 
perfectly quiet ; you will never be disturbed again." 

We continued to live in the new house. Nothing trouble- 
some was seen or heard after that Independence Day. 

A year passed. I chanced to meet the doctor one day in 
Lynn. 

"You were no more troubled with strange sights and sounds 
after that day, were you ? " he asked, referring to the Fourth of 
July on Rumney Marsh. 

" No. Doctor, how did you bring to an end those mysterious 
things ? " 

" By suggestion." 

The interest in this strange narrative had become intense. 

Ah Hue arose calmly, and said : 

" This jade box is a prayer charm. 

" The other green bricks were jade, but were thin and 
hollow. They broke in a new chimney. 

" The two men whose bodies were found were Chinamen, 
They came to America on returning ships that had carried out 
ginseng. They brought money with them. Their purpose was to 



THE JADE BRICK 135 

fill the thin jade boxes, which you call bricks, with opium, and 
to return to China under the American flag. Smuggling was 
severely tried in courts and punished at that time. All the 
* bricks,' or boxes, look like charm boxes, or prayer- wheels. 

" Now do you wish for a proof of a part of what I say ? 

" Listen." 

He held up the jade box, and said : 

" It clicks ! " 

He turned it to a current of air. There was a whirring 
sound. Suddenly it clicked. 

" This is your hammer stroke," said Ah Hue. " When a 
wheel has turned a certain number of times, it clicks several 
times. In a wall of a house, in the night, the click would 
reverberate and sound loud." 

The old merchant lifted his hands, and said : 

" I believe there is a cause for everything." 

" But," said Ah Hue, " this box is marked with a Canton 
hong. I once heard a tale of two Chinamen who came to 
America and never returned. It was a hong tale. Let me 
have the brick, and when we arrive at Canton, let us try to 
make this strange story clear." 

The old tea merchant gave the jade box to Ah Hue. 

" I wish to trace the story of the brick," said Mr. Barnard, 
" for my own satisfaction." 

" And I," said Charlie. 

" And I," said Lou, and all. 

The interest of the Club in China grew on hearing of these 
many mysteries. The most interesting studies are these that 
lead us to an intense desire to learn more. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE TRADE CITIES 

" I HAVE been planning a rather novel excursion for the boys," 
said Mr. Barnard to his wife one day. " I wish the boys to 
visit the old and new trade cities of the world. I have con- 
cluded not to go until midsummer, so that we may vi^t the old 
Russian fair of Nijni-Novgorod. • One meets three nations there 
at once, as we have been told. I would go by the way of Liver- 
pool, the ship city, with its seven miles of docks, where is the 
place to study commerce ; Antwerp and Holland, Berlin, Mos- 
cow, Nijni-Novgorod, and thence to Manchuria, Pekin, Canton, 
Hong-Kong, and Manila." 

" Let Lucy and me go with you," said Mrs. Barnard. 

Mr. Barnard looked surprised. 

" But this is not a woman's journey ; not one for Lucy." 

" And why not ? Why should not an American girl study 
geography, and history, and the living world on its own new field ? 
Do you notice what an interest Lucy takes in the Buddhist 
stories ? It would be a history lesson for her to visit Russia 
and China, — a history lesson of two thousand years. 

" Why should I wish to go, do you ask ? Well, you know I 
have been placed on the State Board of Charities, and I wish to 
see what other cities are doing in the same line of work. I 
would visit Gheel, where the insane are cared for, by letting them 
go free. I would see the world of Tolstoi, and, if possible, I 
would meet Li Hung Chang again. You remember that I pre- 

136 



THE TRADE CITIES 139 

sided at a banquet given to him in part by women when he was 
in New York. He invited me to meet him in China, personally 
invited me, and promised me that he would show me his plans 
for the education of the poor." 

Lucy had long been talking as though she expected to make 
this journey — the girl had so read and studied that this new 
way of travel made other routes seem certain. Liverpool, 
Gheel, Nijni, the Trans-Siberian R. R., Manchuria, Corea, — she 
dreamed of all these famous centres of world life, — they were 
new dreams, or dreams of new suggestions. It was not old 
Liverpool, or Gheel, or Nijni Novgorod that she most wished to 
see, but the world's new life in these old centres. 

Mr. Barnard was silent. A new field for the education of his 
whole family, as well as for his own son Charles and for Louis 
Forbes, opened before him. 

" Wife," he said, " I see your plan in its true light. I wish 
you and Lucy to go with me. You and Lucy are to study chari- 
ties, and the boys and I, trade. We shall have a most intelligent 
instructor in Ah Hue-Ling at the great fair, and in the East. 
We will all go. This, then, shall be our journey — around the 
world by the great port cities and Russia. We will go to 
Liverpool on a trade steamer, — one of the ten thousand ton 
cattle-steamers, — fare, thirty dollars each to Liverpool, not for 
the sake of economy, but for education." 

In midsummer the party left Boston, as they had planned, on 
one of the colossal freight and cattle steamers. This vessel's 
service was as good as the best steamers would have been only a 
few years ago, before the days of the Cit?/ of Borne. Her sleeping- 
rooms were amidships in a kind of castle, and her table was as 
substantial as that of a working people's hotel. It was ten days, 
on an unusually calm sea, before the cattle began to smell land 
and to low. The ship was very steady — the freight was so 



140 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

heavy. There was no rolling or pitching ; no canting, — the 
voyage was like a moving hotel of working people on a Sunday. 

Liverpool, with Victoria's tower, appeared at last. Here was 
the city of the oceans. The party took apartments in a sea 
captains' hotel. Mr. Barnard, Charles, Louis, and Ah Hue went 
to London and Southampton. Mrs. Barnard and Lucy visited 
the poet country near Liverpool, — the English Lake District of 
Cumberland and Westmoreland, where they saw the graves 
of Wordsworth and Coleridge at Grasmere, and the home of 
Ruskin at Coneston. 

Mrs. Barnard began her studies of the neglected people of the 
world on the voyage to Liverpool. She visited the stokers on 
board of the ship, — a class of humanity for whom no one seems 
to care. 

She found an English stoker in the furnace room who had 
been in the battle of Santiago. He told her a story that went 
to her heart, and she put it into verse. 



THE DEMOCEACY OF HONOR 



" They are shouting for Santiago. 

Says the Chaplain : ' Saint James is ours ! ' 
Down falls the flag of four hundred years ; 

Up leaps the flag of a thousand years, 

On the old sun-painted towers ! 

All white as snow, the marines, in a row, 

Are cheering the flag as it leaps to the sun ; 

While, black with soot, ive stand below, 

Young Jack and I, where the west winds blow. 
We shovel the coals on the sea : 

We shovel the coals, — stoke, stoke ; stoke, stoke ; 



THE DEMOCRACY OF HONOR 141 

With faces as black as our world of the coals, 
And we go to the posts of companionless souls, 
And o'er us the mighty ship thunders and rolls 
And I think of Jack and he thinks of me ! 
IVe shovel the coals on the sea ! 

II. 

" They are shouting for Santiago, 

All the white marines in a row ; 

And my heart leaps out in that right proud shout, 

As I stand at the rail below. 

On that Sunday morn, when the2/ stood by their guns, 

/ swung the shovel true, — 

Stoke, stoke ; stoke, stoke ; like a man on a rack : — 

With a spray of water Jack cooled my back. 

And my heart is warm for that deed of Jack. 

HoAV strong my muscles grew ! 

The sea was fever, the sky was fire ; 

A lightning's message came down the wire 

From the engine's brain : ' Stoke, stoke ; stoke, stoke ! ^ 

And every sinew that word awoke. 

As I shovelled the coals on the sea. 
How the battle-ship thundered and cleft the main. 
And drove on the rocks the ships of Spain, 
Like vultures lost in sulphurous rain ! — 
I shovel the coals on the sea ! 

III. 

" An English stoker from Birkenhead, — 

A stoker is all I can be : 
The tides will rise and the tides will fall. 
And glimmer the lights on the far sea-wall 

At Cape May si or on the Dee ; 
But I shovel the coals : stoke, stoke, stoke ! 

All the windy day on the sea ! 



142 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

And strange feet come and strange feet go, 
But no face descends to my furnace, — oh, no ! — 
To say I am one of the world. Ho ! Jack, true Jack ! 
When my veins ran red you cooled my back, 

And I stoked like a tar of the Queen's; 
See ! angels have caught the flag in the sky ! 
Hear the shouts of the men, as the ships go by ! 

Let us shout with the white marines ; 
Let us shout with the men, if our hands are black, — 
Jack, Jack, we are men : — stands the Admiral there, 
The winds of Cape Maysi's tide lifting his hair! 
The land breeze is free, the freshening tide runs. 
He is cheering the men who stood by the guns ; 
The officers cheer them, — now. Jack, let 21s cheer : 
^ Hurrah for the flag of Old Glory unfurled, 

To stand for all nations and ivelcome the world ! ' 
Shout. Let all the officers hear ! — 
^Hurrah and hurrah!^ Say, Jack, do you see 

The officers stare ? They heard our shout rise ! 

From the flag to our hands drop the Admiral's eyes! 
And, Jack, he is bowing, with hand light and free ; 
He is bowing to you, he is bowing to me ! 
We stood back of the men who stood by the guns, 
In the heat that was fiercer than tropical suns; 
Were ever two stokers so honored as we ! '' 



IV. 

And the ships shouted " Santiago ! '' 
And the flags filled the heavens with flowers 

Where down fell the flag of four hundred years. 

And up went the flag for a thousand years. 
On the old sun-painted towers. 
One band then " America " played. 

As it passed the new flag of the sun, 
And "God Save the Queen" played another. 



THE DEMOCRACY OF HONOR 14B 

In the cool of the palms; and Jack took the hand 

Of the stoker ; and tears made white 

A line on his face in the sunset light, 
As he caught the air of his native land 
And said to his sailor brother, — 
" Now, both of the tunes are one ! " 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE OPIUM SMOKEE 

Liverpool has one hundred institutions of chanty. Such 
represent the old sailors' hearts, for sailors are all brothers, and 
all love their comrades of the sea. 

Mrs. Barnard visited one of these charities for seafaring men 
with the captain of the huge traffic ship on which they had 
crossed the ocean. She then chanced to behold a sight that 
caused her heart to ache, and to see what the effects of the opium 
trade had been, not only on the poor, weak, overtempted China- 
man, but upon a young Englishman who, in the China trade, 
had fallen a slave to the seductive and subtile drug. 

They were passing through a ward of incurables when the 
captain stopped, lifted his hands, and said, " Is it possible ? " 

A. white, gaunt face hid itself in the pillows. Then it turned, 
and looked at the captain furtively. The lips were white, and 
the colour of the skin was like tan. 

" The doctor says that I cannot live," said the man. 

" You have been an adventurer," said the captain ; '' tell me, 
in a word, the secret of your life." 

" Opium," said the patient. " I learned the habit on a ship 
which my father commanded. It led me to crime ; I wandered 
over the world trying to break the habit ; I became a gambler ; 
I was schooled in crime ; I reformed, and now I am going out 
— pray, when you think of me." 

The captain turned away. " I will tell you that man's story 

144 




m^^ 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN 147 

on the docks this evening," said he to Mrs. Barnard, " after your 
family returns. I have seen in him what the demon of opium 
may do." 

That evening the captain entertained the party in a little 
garden near the docks, when he told the following tale of the 
son of an English captain of an opium smuggling ship, in 
the days before the opium war. 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN 

The Recoleta of Buenos Ayres is one of the most beautiful 
fields of the dead in all the world. It is a city of marble 
temples, whose doors stand open to reverent feet, — temples 
whose lights shine before crosses, and of flowers which send out 
their perfumes before the sculptured altars that coffin the dead. 
It is one of the few places on earth where the imagination 
pictures it beautiful to be dead. 

I was looking for the tomb of Sarmiento, the great educa- 
tional President of Argentina, among the checkered streets of 
glimmering marbles, when I first met the Deaf and Dumb Man. 
He was tall, and had a fixed, determined look, and was walking 
alone. There was a yellow color on his face that suggested to 
me that he was a victim of a destroying habit. 

I asked him for direction to the state tomb of Sarmiento. 
He looked abstracted, his mind was intent elsewhere. He 
simply said, " JVo se, sefwr^^ and walked on. His eyes had fallen 
full upon me, yet he had evidently not seen me, and could 
not identify me ; he passed me as a rolling statue might have 
been carried by. 

Every man has his atmospheric self. This man had ; it was 
one of mystery, and it chilled the balmy air to my inner sense 
and gave a mental shadow to the sunshine. I stopped and 



148 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

marked him as he ambled along. I said to myself, that man 
has become a criminal through opium. 

One of the local police of Buenos Ayres crossed the white 
marbled walks in the city of the dead. The organ in the great 
funeral church of the cemetery was pouring its music through 
the half-open windows. I knew that a funeral service was 
closing. The policeman was wending his way to an open tomb, 
near which immortelles and living flowers lay in a memorial 
mound. 

The Deaf and Dumb Man caught the sound of the policeman's 
step. He stopped and whirled around, seemed disturbed by the 
sight of the officer of the law, when there shot from his eye a 
gleam of inner light, soul light, astral light, wannish, stealthy, 
furtive. This inward light is usually only seen in a side glance. 
I saw it, and I was sure that there was a consciousness of wrong, 
I believed of crime, in the man's heart. And yet, behind the 
life mystery, conscience lived. 

The bell tolled amid the waving trees in the bright clear 
sun. Plumed horses and a grand funeral car bore a body 
from the odorous church to the white cemetery, and I lost 
sight of the Deaf and Dumb Man. But the half-lurid gleam 
of soul light, that only a soul discolored by evil could cast, 
haunted me. I had seen the Deaf and Dumb Man, but he 
had not seen me except as a something passing by. I would 
know him elsewhere in the world ; he would be certain not to 
recognize me. 

I met the man again. It was at a missionary prayer-meeting 
in Buenos Ayres. He was not the same man as before. There 
was an elevated look in his face which held me. His features 
seemed to be lighted up by some beneficent mood, like an 
inwardly lighted vase of alabaster. The sinister look was gone. 
He was speaking ; his subject was " Christian Growth." The 
more earnest he became, the more luminous was his face. He 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN • 149 

beamed upon his hearers as he ended with a quotation from 
San Martin, — 

" Seras lo que clehes ser 
Y sino, no se?xis nada," — 

which may be translated, " Thou must be that which thou 
oughtest to be, and without that thou shalt be nothing." 

The lights in the little hall where he had been speaking went 
out. He stood at the door. I stopped near him and watched 
him there. 

The streets were flowing with tides of the people. Saloons 
glittered, and over the way was a gambling-hall, through whose 
dusky atmospheres were drifting the enchantments of the 
haunting airs of old Italian operas. 

He spoke to me and said : 

" It is a gay night that they have over there." 

His face changed. The spiritual look vanished, and a dark 
shadow as of a suffusion of black blood seemed to obliterate the 
transfiguration. Another spirit looked from his eyes ; had I 
seen him only at that moment I would have suspected him of 
being a very dangerous adventurer or gambler. 

He watched the lights in the hall, heard the music of '- How 
so Fair," and the blood in his face grew darker. The face I 
had seen in the Recoleta came back again, — dark, brooding, 
deep, and evil. 

It was all as if a good angel had gone out of the heart of 
life, and an evil one had taken its place and looked out of the 
windows of the eyes upon the world. I could see that some 
strange conflict was going on within him. He shuffled away, 
the dark spirit in his face. Then he turned and looked back, 
his face lighter again : 

" Vai/a V con Deos" he said (Go you with God). 

I felt that I had met two men, — not a Doctor Jekyll and 
Mr. Hyde, but a man led at times by high ideals, and at times 



150 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

yielding to some hereditary evil. Buenos Ayres at that time 
was a sorry school for a man like that. His face was capable 
of being fashioned to the mood of his soul ; some persons' are. 

As distinctly as I had marked him at this second meeting, he 
had not as yet seen me so as to take me into his consciousness. 
He would never recognise me again on account of speaking to 
him in the white graveyard, or of my meeting him in the 
shadow. 

Had I met a very mysterious criminal, or had I had a glimpse 
of the struggle of a soul ? 

There was one low Chinese resort in the city. I saw this 
man of mystery going toward it. In China, the keeper of such 
a place would have been condemned by a mardarin to the 
bamboo or rack. 

I was at Southampton waiting to sail for New York on one 
of the ocean palaces. It was late in summer, and I lingered 
about the docks and the old ivied city walls for several days, 
waiting for the American flag to rise over the consulate and 
announce the arrival of the steamer on which I had booked 
to sail. I went to the Isle of Wight, to Osborne House, to 
Farringford, Ventnor, and the Charities. 

On returning to my hotel one evening, I found an American 
party of tourists who were booked to sail on the same steamer 
as myself. Among them was a very beautiful and light-hearted 
girl named Antoinette Aubey, whose brother had been a com- 
panion of mine at a mercantile school. 

She greeted me heartily. 

'' So you are here," said she, " and I am glad to meet you, 
for now I will have a friend." 

" I am glad to meet the sister of one with whom I have 
shared happy hours," said I. " I am waiting for the flag to rise 
over the consulate." 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN 153 

" It is there now," she said. " We received a despatch 
of the coming of the ship a few hours ago in London. 
But the ship is not to sail until day after to-morrow. Our 
party is going to Netley Abbey to-morrow. Will you join 
us?" 

" I should be glad to go with you to see the poetic old ruin of 
which I have seen many pictures." 

" I shall be glad to have your friendship on the return voy- 
age," she continued. " My brother arranged this trip for me, — 
I have been to Geneva, — and he put me into the keeping of the 
captain of the steamer, whom he knew. This captain, whose 
name is Wright, is a very fatherly, silent man, and he kept 
saying something to me on the outward voyage that has haunted 
me. It is this, ' Make no acquaintances with strangers.' The 
words may seem commonplace enough to you as I quote them, 
but if you were to hear him utter them, slowly, as if they had 
some strange import, you would not wonder that I repeat them. 
As we were being tugged out of New York, he left the wheel- 
house, and came and stood by me on the deck and said : ' You 
are an American girl, and free-spirited ; you are travelling 
alone ; make no acquaintances with strangers.' I thanked him, 
for my brother had asked him to give me needed advice. But 
he treated me like a child. 

" I was ill at sea for a couple of days ; then my spirits 
returned, and I mingled freely with the other passengers, and 
made friends of everybody without other than a passenger-list 
introduction. 

" One night the captain passed me on deck. He lifted his 
hat. I looked for him to smile, but his face was serious. He 
looked me full in the face and said : ' Miss Aubey, you are 
going abroad for the first time ; the world is new to you ; make 
no intimate acquaintances with strangers on shipboard without 
coming to me. Pardon me, I have seen more of the world than 



154 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

you, and have had more experience. Your brother asked me to 
be a father to you.' 

^' He was as a father to me. He gave me a place at his table. 
He advised me in regard to my trip to the Continent, and when 
he parted from me at the window of the wheel-house, he said : 
' I feel a little concern for you ; make no intimate acquaintances 
with strangers.' 

" Those words, ' a little concern,' haunt me. I am careful 
about my conduct, or try to be. You know what my life has 
been, a prudent one. The church circle has been my society, 
and I worked in the rescue missions without a thought of harm. 
I have been making the acquaintance of strangers since I left 
Yassar, and I never so much as thought of danger. Do you 
think that the fatherly captain thought me wanting in judgment ?" 

" He is an English captain, I am told, and such men are 
noted for being very discerning. They see perils that do not 
come from sea. Your brother placed you wisely." 

The party went to Netley Abbey the following day, and I 
accompanied them. 

On the evening after our return, I went out to walk along 
the wharves where the giant steamers lay. I strolled along a 
pleasure-ground by the water, under some great trees where 
were cannon which had been in the Indian service. It was 
twilight, and a dark orange hue rippled on Southampton Water. 
I sat down on one of the benches under the trees, listened 
to the mellow bells of ancient churches, saw the lights twink- 
ling in the red air over the dark groves of Cowes, when an 
extraordinary incident occurred. 

A tall man approached the place where I was sitting, talking 
gaily to two women. The voice startled me. I had heard it 
but once before. It uttered but three words. These were, " iVo 
se, sefior.''^ He was too gay to notice me, but as he passed me 
two men came running up behind him. They were working 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN 155 

men with dinner-pails. But their hurried steps seemed to 
awaken the man's suspicion. He turned his head to the side, 
saw that he was not being followed designedly, and as he faced 
to the front again there was the same gleam that I had seen in 
the Recoleta. It was the person whom I have chosen to call 
in advance the Deaf and Dumb Man. 

He passed on, talking gaily. I have seldom heard a more 
ready tongue in a public place. " Ready," I say. 

The flag hung over the consulate limp in the rising mist 
which the hot August sun was beginning to burn. The ship 
was to sail at eight o'clock in the morning. I went on board 
early, and sat down on the deck and watched for the people who 
were to come on board. 

I recall reading again and again an inscription on the high 
roof of a mercantile house facing the docks. It was, " On this 
place Canute rebuked the vanity of his courtiers by ordering 
back the sea." I was picturing the scene of this old history 
lesson in my fancy. I could see the king sitting down on his 
throne, which had been placed at the edge of the tide, lifting his 
sceptre and giving the royal order, the sea rising steadily in 
great throbs, and — 

When suddenly a sight caught my eye that caused the vision 
of King Canute to vanish. 

Among the people coming on board was a man with a pitiable 
face. He was tall, spare, white. He halted on the way to 
look around. It was the Deaf and Dumb Man. As he turned 
to look around, there was the same suspicious soul gleam in his 
eye that I had seen before. The pitiable expression in his face 
seemed to me to be simulated, as of one who would invite 
sympathy for some hidden purpose. 

He was alone — yet was he ? He seemed to desire to appear 
solitary. I had seen him twice before, or so I suspected. He 
had looked upon me, but had not seen me, and I felt sure that 



156 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

he would not recognize me now. As I was sitting there the 
ship bell rang, the last whistles blew, with a short, hollow 
sound, and the captain came upon deck and greeted me. At 
this point Antoinette appeared with a flow of spirits that made 
her look more beautiful than I had ever seen her. 

" Captain," she said, " I have found my good brother's friend 
in our party. So there is now no need of your saying to me, 
' Make no acquaintance with strangers.' It was good of you to 
caution me against that, though it did make me feel childish 
— Heaven forgive me." 

" You are safe now with your brother's friend," said the cap- 
tain, and he went to the wheel-house. There was a slow, 
mighty movement under us ; the sea palace, now glittering with 
a full flood of sunlight, moved out toward the ocean, and the 
world was lost, or seemed to be. 

Presently the Deaf and Dumb Man came upon deck, solitary 
as though he knew no one, and took a seat alone, but near us. 
He had put on a pair of gold-bowed spectacles with slightly 
colored glass of a purplish hue. 

" Brother Paul allowed me a thousand dollars for this 
journey," said Antoinette to me, with a kind of sober merri- 
ment. " I have not spent half of it, — what do you think of 
that for the first foreign outing for an American girl ? I pur- 
chased for him a dinner plate that will play soft enchanting 
music when you lift it up. I ought to spend some of the money 
left over in the steerage, as a gift of gratitude." 

The Deaf and Dumb Man seemed to be listening, I noticed 
the listening attitude, for we do not hear wholly with our ears. 

" But I did indulge in one extravagance," she continued. " I 
had some money of my own which I put aside long ago for 
jewels, when I should see such as met my ideal. I saw such an 
ideal in London. A necklace of diamonds and rubies. I shall 
never tell any one what I paid for it. But now I have a 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN 157 

confession to make to you and I want you to honor me for 
it. I — " 

I gave the happy-eyed girl a glance. 

" He is not listening," she said, in a subdued tone. " He is 
deaf and dumb." 

" How do you know ? " I asked, in a low, continuous tone. 

" A woman asked the clerk to answer the man's questions by 
signs and said, ' He is deaf and dumb.' I was waiting for my 
key, and the polite clerk said, ' Pardon, lady, let me attend to 
the wants of the deaf and dumb man.' So it is all right. I 
was about to say that I am going to pass the necklace through 
the custom-house honestly. I am not going to wear it under 
lace on my neck, and say, 'Nothing dutiable.' I am going to 
carry an honest soul, as clear as my beautiful, beautiful dia- 
monds are, all the way through life." 

The Deaf and Dumb Man sat like a statue, with a far-away 
look. I could feel that he had been listening. We feel the 
truth of things. 

The white wings of sea-gulls curved and dipped laterally 
around us, in the blazing air. I accompanied Antoinette to the 
captain's table. It was Saturday. 

" They have asked me to sing at the service to-morrow," said 
Antoinette to the captain. " I think I will give them the plain 
hymn, ' For those in peril on the sea.' If the weather is fair I 
am going down to the steerage to sing to that forlorn company. 
It makes my heart melt to look at them. I have some crown 
pieces put aside for the mothers of babies." 

" I make no objection since your brother's friend is with you. 
You are one of those noble American girls that I admire, only 
— only a little lacking in prudence ; English girls may have too 
much prudence, but it is on the safe side." 

The next morning the sun rose glorious from the ocean. 
There was an open sea, of purple waves, and a sky that was as 



158 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

an oversea of gold. There were services in the cabin. Antoi- 
nette sang the usual hymn, and afterward " Lead, Kindly 
Light." 

She then started to go to the steerage. 

" Shall I go with you ? " I asked. 

" No ; that would look as though I thought I needed protec- 
tion, and would spoil my songs to ears spiritual. You may 
listen to me upon deck." 

An old Scotch minister conducted the service in the steerage, 
and Antoinette surprised all the passengers on the deck by sing- 
ing the simplest of old " revival " Scottish melodies : 

" My brother, I wish you well, 
My brother, I wish you well. 
When my Lord calls I hope T shall 
Be mentioned in the promised land." 

She turned to a mother who wore a handkerchief over her 
head, and sang with a superb tenderness : 

"My sister, I wish you well." 

Then she bent her eyes on a little company of boys and girls, 
and sang : 

" Little children, I wish you well." 

Her voice filled the air. The deck passengers crowded for- 
ward to listen. Even the white gulls seemed to move slowly on 
their wings as they passed by. 

I found my admiration for this noble girl burning into love. 
She won the hearts of all on shipboard at that hour. Even a 
stoker's coal-black face bore marks of a stream of tears. 

That evening the red moon came up in a vapory horizon as 
the sun went down as in a sea of liquid gold. 

The saloon passengers began to promenade on the deck. I 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN 159 

walked with Antoinette in the merry round and round. All 
the passengers joined in the procession, except the Deaf and 
Dumb Man. 

I sat down at last, and Antoinette left me. I began to talk 
with a friend, when presently a sight met my eyes that turned 
my thoughts into confusion. The promenade was still going 
on, and Antoinette was promenading with the Deaf and Dumb 
Man. 

Round and round they went, now appearing, now disap- 
pearing. 

When she returned to me at last, I gasped : 

" Who introduced you to your new friend ? " 

" He introduced himself. He put his finger on his lips as I 
passed him by, and gave me, oh, such a pitiful look ! I bowed to 
him ■ — I pitied him — so lonely, away from friends, and no one 
to recognize him ! As I bowed he rose up and bent his arm. I 
took it — you would not have had me turn away from a deaf 
and dumb man ? " 

I can give no description or analysis of my thoughts at that 
hour. The conduct of Antoinette in kindly breaking the loneli- 
ness of the Deaf and Dumb Man seemed to fill all hearts with a 
new admiration. She was the most popular young lady on the 
ship after that. 

The weather continued beautiful. Night after night the 
promenade was renewed, and as often the Deaf and Dumb Man 
offered his arm to Antoinette, and it was accepted. My sus- 
picions that the man was a pretender grew, but were they true, 
or had my eyes deceived me ? I distrust suspicious people. I 
questioned myself if I were not suspicious. I was not sure that 
this was the man I had seen in Buenos Ayres and on the 
esplanade of Southampton Water. 

The common admonition to young travellers, " Make no 
acquaintance with strangers," admits of qualification. Some of 



160 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

the most lasting friendships are made with fellow travellers who 
have taken the view that one's country is the world, and one's 
countrymen all mankind. 

Was this man deaf and dumb ? Had my eyes and ears 
deceived me ? If he were not deaf and dumb why was he 
seeking to make such a false impression ? What could have 
been his secret schooling in habit that had led him up to such 
a strange deception ? 

After a few days of serene weather the sky became leaden, 
and high winds blew, and the seas rolled high. The promenades 
were discontinued, and the men housed themselves in the 
smoking-room and amused themselves by novel reading and 
cards. 

On the fifth day out an incident occurred that startled me 
beyond measure. The Deaf and Dumb Man spent his time 
much in the smoking-room, at first unsocially and silently, but 
very ol^servingly. On this day he made signs to a gentleman 
of a large and long purse that he desired to have a game of 
cards with him. A game followed, and the Deaf and Dumb 
Man was easily beaten. 

The latter desired to play again. Another game was played 
with a like result. Then the Deaf and Dumb Man desired to 
play for money. Notwithstanding the unwritten law against 
gambling on shipboard, the rich passenger, from a love of 
excitement, agreed to the proposal. The Deaf and Dumb Man 
won, but when the game was ended, his opponent leaped to his 
feet, exclaiming : 

" I never will have anything more to do with ^'ou ; you 
cheated, and I understand your trick perfectly. You are not a 
gentleman, and I do not believe that you are deaf and dumb. I 
shall report you to the captain." 

I could see by the expression of the Deaf and Dumb Man's 
face that he understood every word. My heart turned sick. 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN 163 

I went out on deck. The sea was raging ; but I found 
Antoinette sitting outside enveloped in ample wraps. She was 
a very good sailor. She welcomed me in her usual light-hearted 
way. I sat down beside her. 

" Something is bothering me," I said. 

" The sea ? " she asked. 

" No, not the sea ; the Deaf and Dumb Man." 

" What do you mean ? Of all people in the world, a deaf 
and dumb man should give people little concern." 

" Something has happened in the smoking-room, something 
serious, which shows that he is not a gentleman." 

She gasped and turned pale. 

" But he is deaf and dumb." 

" How do you know ? " I gave her a searching look. 

" Can you tell me what his misconduct was in the smoking- 
room ? " 

I answered, firmly : 

" He cheated at cards. I believe him to be a gambler." 

She gasped again, and a very anxious look came into her face. 
I could see her mingling thoughts of doubt and fear. 

We sat in silence. We were not ill, but there are times of 
heavy seas when one who is not ill desires to be quiet. Such 
was the case with us both, and each had a dark problem in 
mind about which we were not prepared to speak with definite 
judgment. 

In an hour or two the captain passed us. He stopped with a 
shadow on his face, and said, after the English way: 

" Nasty weather. You face the winds bravely, Miss Aubey, 
but let me say once more, and take my meaning, won't you ? 
' Make no intimate acquaintances with strangers ! ' " 

Antoinette burst into tears. She shivered. She rose with a 
quivering lip, and said : 

" Help me down to my room ! I am afraid" 



164 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

I did what she had asked, and left her there. The next day 
she did not appear upon deck. It was a day of rough, rolling- 
seas, and not a woman appeared at the table. Many men 
were absent from the table, among them the Deaf and Dumb 
Man. 

I felt almost sure that this strange character was the same 
man whom I had met in the Recoleta of Buenos Ayres, and on 
the promenade of Southampton Water. I suspected him to be 
a gambler, and worse, a man whose methods tended to crime. 

On the day before landing Antoinette sent for me. Her face 
had lost its glow and confidence. 

'' If my brother should not come down to the ship to meet 
me, will you see me from the boat to my home ? " 

" Certainly. I should have offered to do so." 

A cowering look came into her face, — a look that had grown 
out of intense suffering, and she said : 

" I am afraid." 

" Of whom ? " I asked. 

" Oh, you must know. It has all come to me, — what a strange 
risk I took. I was so thoughtless. The captain meant much 
when he spoke to me the last time. He is world-wise." 

I could see that her solitude in her room had been haunted 
by terror. 

We heard the chimes of Trinity on the next morning in the 
mist. The ship was soon at the dock after a fair voyage of 
seven days. There were shouted orders and ringing of bells. 

Just before landing Antoinette sent for me again. 

" Will you see that the Deaf and Dumb Man leaves the ship 
before I come up on deck ? I never wish to see him again, and 
I will wait for you to accompany me, unless my brother should 
come." 

Just then there was a warm, hearty hand laid upon my 
shoulder. It was the expected brother — Paul. 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN 165 

" I am all right now," said Antoinette, " and we will not 
speak again now of the incidents of the voyage." 

We three went to the saloon, and talked rapidly. I saw the 
Deaf and Dumb Man pass out on the gangplank. As he did 
so, he looked behind, and his eyes rested upon us. He turned 
his head away when he saw that I had observed him, and as he 
did so there shot from his eye the same strange gleam that 
had raised my suspicions in the cemetery of Buenos Ayres, 
and the former question in my inner consciousness came back 
again. 

It was busy noon when we left the ship. Antoinette was 
placed in a hack by her brother, and he and I took another hack 
for a business place. Antoinette was to go to her home, and 
her brother and I were to dine with her at home in the evening. 
Her father was dead, but her mother and son continued to live 
in the up-town house that had been willed to them. Mr. Aubey 
had been president of the Union Bank. 

Paul Aubey and I returned to the Aubey home early in the 
evening, full of anticipations of meeting a joyful mother and 
daughter. 

The door of the mansion seemed to open itself as we hurried 
up the steps. Mrs. Aubey stood in the hall, and her first greet- 
ing was one that struck terror to our hearts : 

" Where is Antoinette ? " 

" Isn't she here ? " asked Paul, in an excited tone. " She 
left the boat for home at noon. I gave the hackman our 
number, and she intended to come directly home. She must 
have changed her mind, or — something must have happened." 
The last words caused my heart to sink. 

He stood there in the shadow of the hall, thinking. Then he 
turned his eye to me, and said : 

" Can you imagine anything to have happened ? The hack- 
man was a stupid-looking fellow, but he had a good hack — 



166 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

No. 501. I paid him as I left him. 1 had the ready change." 
Mrs. Aubey began to tremble. 

" This is very strange," said she. " Antoinette would not have 
been likely to have stopped upon the way, certainly not five 
hours." 

She turned to me. My heart struggled to break. 

" Can you imagine what has happened to my girl — I am 
worried about her. My mind has been unsettled in thinking 
about her all the afternoon. Antoinette is in trouble ; 1 can 
feel it." 

" Something happened to cause her to change her mind," 
said Paul. " We will sit down and wait. She will come soon.'* 

We entered the parlor, and sat down in silence for a time. 

" She arrived safely and was well," said Paul to his mother. 
" Don't worry ; she will make it all clear when she comes back. 
Many things are likely to happen after a voyage." 

The bell of the great mahogany clock struck seven. Antoi- 
nette had not returned. The light of the orange sky was fading 
in the windows. The gray night was coming on. 

" Had Antoinette any particular friends on board the ship ? " 
asked Mrs. Aubey, " any outside of her own party ?" 

I felt the nerves of my upper lip quiver. 

" Only one," I answered. 

" Who was that friend ? " she asked, anxiously. 

" He was a deaf and dumb man." 

" That was nothing." 

Anxiety grew with the lighting of the lamps, and the falling 
of the shadows. 

Eight o'clock. Antoinette had not returned. 

" I will find hack 501," said Paul, starting up. " You remain 
with mother." He went out. 

The clock struck nine. Paul came back. 

" I have found the hack and the hackman," he said. 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN 167 

" What did he tell you ? " asked Mrs. Aubey, in a tension of 
nerves. 

" He told me a strange story — I cannot understand it. He 
said that he was hailed just after starting by a fine-looking 
gentleman, who said : 

" ' The lady in the carriage is a friend of mine. Stop ! ' 

" He stopped, and the gentleman entered the carriage and 
greeted the lady. As the gentleman did so, he said, ' Drive to 
Union Bank.'' He left the gentleman and Antoinette on the 
steps of the Union Bank. The gentleman dismissed the hack. 
I feel certain that the hackman's story was true ; he had the 
honest tone when he told his story." 

Mrs. Aubey and Paul turned to me, and I never passed a 
more dreadful hour than that under the depression of their ques- 
tions, each of which suggested some new alarm. 

" Did any gentleman take a special interest in Antoinette on 
the voyage ? " asked Paul. 

" No one but the Deaf and Dumb Man." 

" Was he deaf and dumb ? That man could talk — the one 
that the hack man described." 

" I do not know." 

" Do — not — know — that implies suspicion. What attention 
did the Deaf and Dumb Man pay her ? " 

" She promenaded with him on deck on the evenings of 
pleasant days." 

" But you were on board. Why did she accept his attentions ? " 

" She pitied him because he was lonely, deaf and dumb." 

" It begins to look dark," said he. 

Mrs. Aubey began to cry hysterically. 

" Had you any reasons to believe that that man was not 
honest?" 

I could feel my nerves creep and shrink as this direct question 
was put to me. What could I say ? 



168 TBAVELLEB TALES OF CHINA 

"I did have suspicions that he might not be what he seemed 
to be. But I could not caution Antoinette about a man of whose 
character I could not be quite certain. When the rough weather 
came, she kept her room, and there her acquaintance with the 
Deaf and Dumb Man seemed to end." 

The mother went into the hall, leaving Paul and me alone. 

<•' I want you now to open your heart honestly and fully to 
me," said Paul. " What do you believe to have been the fate 
of my sister ? Has she eloped with that man ? " 

" Never ! It would have been impossible." 

"' I agree with you there." 

He began again : 

" Why did she get out with that man at the bank ? " 

" He asked her to identify him there that he might cash a 
draft or a check, or some like transaction." 

He thought of this theory. I could feel his nerves quiver. 

" But I have been to the bank clerks and cashiers. They 
have seen no such person. They would have known her at 
once." 

" That was an excuse that he made. The man knew the 
neighborhood of Union Bank ; he knew that your father had 
been president of that bank. He made some new excuse on the 
steps of the bank, caused your sister to step aside, and robbed 
her." 

" But why does she not return ? " 

" Do you read the papers ? People sink into oblivion in such 
ways as that every week. We might almost believe that some 
people vanish. They are seen full of life, honor, promise, and 
in an hour they are gone, no one knows how or where. I shall 
never, never forget the good old English captain's advice to poor 
Antoinette, ' Make no intimate acquaintance with strangers.' 
People do not as often disappear in English ports as in New 
York." 



THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN 169 

As we were talking there was a timid ring at the door. Mrs. 
Aubey flew to answer the bell. The door opened, and a strange 
sound in the hall startled us. There was uttered a cry — 

" Oh, mother ! " 

It was Antoinette. 

Paul and I rose up, and stood like statues. She sunk down 
into the nearest chair. 

" Every word that I will tell you is true," said she, with 
nervous earnestness. 

" We shall all believe you," said Paul, " your every word." 

^' He asked me, Jie entreated me, he influenced me by some 
strange power to step into a doorway near the bank to explain 
a paper to me. I did not wish to go — he drew me by an 
unseen power. I did not intend to ever meet him again. I 
did not wish to step round to the doorway, or to see his papers, 
or to identify him, or anything ; I shook with terror. But he 
forced me to obey his will as by an invisible influence. I dared 
not disobey this will. I stepped into the doorway ; he took out 
a paper with a seal to explain, when the floor moved up. I felt 
myself rising as if by an unseen power. The floor stopped. 
Then he seized my arm and led me away through some dark 
passage, I knew not where. I was dumb. 

'' He robbed me, but he told me that if I would trust him I 
should not be harmed. He said that he would never forget my 
singing in the steerage. 

" He closed the door of a close windowless room upon me. I 
remained there some hours. Then he came for me, and led me 
to the same platform. It was night, and the floor moved down. 
You can never imagine my horror at that moment when the 
floor moved up. I can never recover from that moment of 
horror. My brain burns now ! " 

Her mother clasped her, saying : 

" You are our own again." 



170 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" But the wing of my life is broken. I shall never recover 
from the shock that I received when that floor moved upJ^ 

The case was secretly given to the police. But the accom- 
plices of the crime were never found. No one seemed to be 
able to explain the secret that caused the elevator to move up 
at the will of a stranger. The man who operated the secret 
elevator could not be found ; but rooms that had been occupied 
at the top of the house were never claimed again by its former 
occupants. 

This part of the story is brought back to me often by the 
accounts of sudden and mysterious disappearances of people in 
great cities, as recorded in the daily papers. Behind many of 
these disappearances there is always some strange history, and 
the key to the mystery is not often found. 

Would I ever again meet this dark-souled man, who carried 
with him a gleam of light, who was by nature and association a 
criminal, but whose soul, somehow, through the gift of some 
good ancestor, perhaps, was still in struggle ? 

Some years after these strange occurrences, I was in Montreal. 
Spring was lighting up Mont Royal, and the St. Lawrence w^as 
flowing free again. 

There was street preaching in one of the squares of the city 
evenings, and I went to the place one shadowy, red twilight, 
attracted by the singing. 

The preacher on this occasion drew crowds by his fervor. 
As soon as he rose up, 1 saw something familiar in his face. It 
held me, and the impression grew. The speaker was none other 
than the Deaf and Dumb Man. 

His face lighted up again. I listened spellbound at his dis- 
course, wondering whether he was led by an angel or a devil ; 
whether I should report him to the police, or offer him my hand. 

The last words of his discourse led me to decide to leave him 
in silence, for a time, until I could better consider the case. 



JADE BOXES , 173 

The words were these : 

" I have been a man of evil thoughts, devil -haunted, and I 
have done dark deeds, and I would be a hypocrite did I not 
make this confession to you. But the love of doing good has 
overcome a secret inborn desire to do evil. I have shut my soul 
forever to the evil spirit that for years overcame me ; my 
temptations have gone, and what I have done any man can do." 

That man I have met again to-day. 1 found him dying in 
the hospital. He told me the secret of his life in one word. 
You may guess what that one word is. Opium ! 



JADE BOXES 

Another curious adventure happened in Liverpool. 

In an old East India Museum Charles Barnard and Louis 
Forbes found many interesting things. They returned to the 
collection several times, it being very near their hotel. 

One day the two boys came running to the hotel to call 
Ah Hue. 

" We have found something strange," said both. " Ah Hue, 
return with us." 

The three went to the musty museum, and the boys led Ah 
Hue to a dingy apartment over which were the words, " Opium 
Smuggler Tools." 

They led him to a cabinet, which was filled with odd 
inventions. 

" There," said they, " are boxes of jade, — hollow, green boxes, 
— but they have no label." 

Ah Hue looked through the glass silently. He at last said : 

" They have no labels, but they form a part of ^ Opium 
Smugglers' Tools.' They are like those that were built into 
the new chimney, are they not ? " 



174 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" Yes, of the same kind. This is very curious. Let me call 
Mr. Barnard." 

Charles ran for his father. Mrs. Barnard and Lucy followed 
Ah Hue back to the museum, and gazed in wonder on the green 
jade boxes. 

Lucy seemed to be the most interested of all the party. 

"Oh, Ah Hue," she said, ''you are right — I know that you 
are right in regard to the mystery — you see. What do you say 
now ? " ' 

" I am surprised to meet these jade boxes in Liverpool, but I 
expected to find such things in the old hong museum in Canton. 
I think we will find such boxes there, and that I can trace such 
devices through the records of the old mandarins to your own 
neighborhood in Boston. The mandarins are accountable for 
the known history of people who disappear." 

The boys again and again visited Rochedale, the great cooper- 
ative city. It is not far from Liverpool. There working people 
have bank accounts, and the successful experiment in coopera- 
tion became a permanent industrial life. They there studied 
the history of the Rochedale pioneers. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SILKS OF ANTWERP— THE TOWN WHEEE THE 
INSANE GO EEEE — THE KINDERPLATZ 

" We are going to the country of silks," said Mr. Barnard to 
the boys. " We must stop at Antwerp, and study the silk and 
lace manufactured by the way." 

Antwerp (French Anvers — on ver), the commercial city of 
Belgium on the Scheldt, is a city to which a young industrial 
student should go. Belgium stands for fabrics, and her great 
factories hum with life, invention, and enterprise. 

So the party found rooms under the " lace tower " of the 
great cathedral where chimes of bells play four times an hour 
night and day, and keep the blue sky perpetually filled with 
music like songs of angels. 

Here Mrs. Barnard and Lucy visited the pictures of Bubens 
and the charities, while Mr. Barnard, Ah Hue, and the boys 
studied the silk fabrics and the way of making them. Ah Hue 
was a most helpful companion here ; he knew the Chinese 
methods of silk manufacture well, and he was as much of a 
student as the others. 

Ah Hue related the methods of cultivating silk and prepar- 
ing it for the market in China. It was a good place to begin 
this instruction here among the Belgian silk-factories. 

" China," said he, " is the land of the mulberry-tree. The 
world wears the product of the leaves of the tree as it drinks 
the leaves of the tea plant. 

" The silkworms of China are the manufacturers of the choice 



176 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

fabrics of the world ; they are fed on mulberry leaves, to spin 
cocoons and to die, and the great looms take up their work, and 
we wear it." The party visited many beautiful town halls and 
buildings of trade in the industrial Kingdom, among them the 
hotels de Ville in Brussels and Ghent. 

Mrs. Barnard, as a member of the Board of Visitors to the 
State Charities in Massachusetts, found much to interest her here. 
She visited Gheel, near Antwerp, where the insane go free. 

Here she was told a story by a traveller which she never 
would forget, for it revealed to her one of the best of the 
world's methods of caring for the insane poor. 



A STRANGE TALE OF GHEEL 

Gheel, near Antwerp, is one of the ancient miracle-places 
of the Catholic Church in Europe. It has a shrine at which for 
centuries insane people have been reputed to be cured. What- 
ever may be the facts or the superstitions in such cases, modern 
science has wrought what one might claim to be miracles there 
in the treatment of nervous diseases, for when Belgium, always 
alert in social reforms, wished to make an experiment of caring 
for her insane poor by giving them the freedom of the open air 
and the fields, she chose Gheel as the place where the tj'ial of 
the new method should be made. Here her Department of 
Charitable Institutions has reversed most of the methods of the 
past in the care of nervous patients by placing such invalids in 
small boarding-houses in the wide, open, sea-cooled country, and 
giving them their freedom under sympathetic supervision. The 
experiment of the Belgian government, at first held to be peril- 
ous, has proved as successful as its purpose was beneficent; it 
is one of the merciful miracles of modern science, whose influ- 
ence seems destined to fill the world. The streets of Gheel, 



A STRANGE TALE OF GHEEL 177 

worn for a thousand years by the footsteps of unhappy pilgrims, 
are now visited by the philanthropic investigators of all lands, 
who study the most merciful ways of treating the most pitiable 
of human afflictions. 

Gheel is a green oasis of crofters' cottages, in a wide sea of 
sand called the Campine. Its attractive features are its great 
churches, its ever-turning, castle-like windmills, and its bright 
and rippling linden-trees. 

The lindens of Gheel ! What broken spirits have walked 
under their long, cool shadows, ■ — an empress ; a prince ; men of 
rank, crushed by care ; men of genius and intellectual power ; 
people separated from their families ; people with no families 
and few friends ; Belgium's insane poor ; the trembling epilep- 
tic ; the outcast, who has been made what he is by the strange 
conduct of long, slow invasion of mental disease, — all reduced 
to a common level in the sympathy of their sorrow. Gheel has 
been a miracle-place for the healing of the insane for so many 
centuries that one recalls with a heart-throb the long procession 
of these pilgrims of hope and fear as one sits down on the 
gray, mossy walls under the avenue of lindens, an avenue 
that stretches far, far away in the green garden of the sandy 
Campine. 

I shall never forget a tale of mental suffering and of relief 
through a new imagination that was told me by a Swiss-English 
physician as we sat down on the long low stone wall under the 
lindens of Gheel. 

My interest in Gheel had been curiously awakened. I was 
travelling from Geneva to Antwerp with a medical friend who 
had made a long study of the morbid manifestations of nervous 
disease. An asylum seemed to fly by the swift car window, and 
it left in my mind the shadow of its wing. 

" Is it true," I asked my friend, " that there is a town in Bel- 
gium where thousands of insane or nervously afflicted people 



178 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

are allowed to roam free, and where the farm folk for many 
miles are employed in boarding them and caring for them ? " 

" You mean Gheel in the Campine, the place where Belgium 
has made a new experiment in the care and treatment of her 
insane poor, — the old miracle-place of St. Dymphnea. Yes,'' 
he continued, " it is true that some two or more thousand ner- 
vous patients are so cared for there in the freedom of the open 
air. I myself once sent there a patient whose case was the 
strangest I have ever known. I will tell you the curious story 
some day ; it is a mystery of the imagination, and one that so 
touched my heart and awakened my curiosity that it has never 
ceased to haunt me." 

The green, sunny fields and bowery towns of Belgium were 
moving past us like an unrolling picture. We had been to- 
gether to the battle-field of Waterloo, had visited the famous 
well of Hogomont, so vividly described in *' Les Miserables," and 
had been to the place of the orchard where Napoleon I., a fugi- 
tive and all alone, had spent an hour in reflection after the red 
twilight on that field which had decided his destiny and the lines 
of the map of Europe. What an hour to the suddenly fallen 
emperor that must have been ! What thoughts, what feelings 
must have come to him in that orchard, in the twilight after 
the sunburst and clouds, when the god shrunk into the man ! 
I had shared the imaginations of the place with my friend the 
doctor. 

He continued to answer my question, as he saw that I was so 
greatly interested. 

" Gheel in the Campine, or open-sea country," he said, " is a 
place of wide horizons, of green gardens and fields, where the 
arms of the great windmills are always going. It is situated 
some twenty-six miles from Antwerp, in the province of Ant- 
werp. Its titular saint is the Princess Dymphnea, who was 
slain by her father, an ancient King of Ireland, for her virtuous 



A STBANGE TALE OF GHEEL 181 

conduct there, at whose death or martyrdom deranged people 
were said to have been restored to health. A shrine arose 
there to commemorate this supposed miraculous healing. It is 
now a very beautiful church, with a long history, — a place of 
prayers for the recovery of the insane, full of legendary lore. 

" St. Dymphnea's tomb became a place of pilgrimages for the 
healing of deranged folk. The patients used to undergo a kind 
of novitiate in a house near the church, or that formed a part 
of it, before they entered the mausoleum. 

" The town now is a state hospital, some thirty miles in cir- 
cumference, where the patients are treated in cottage boarding- 
houses, and where wonderful cures are reported to have been 
wrought. You have heard the story of the Miller of Gheel ? " 

" No, doctor, I never so much as heard the name of Gheel 
before. Who was the miller ? " 

" He is represented as a kind of Belgian ' Wise Man of 
Gotham ; ' he set up two windmills in the same lot, and he re- 
flected that there would not be wind enough in one lot for two 
windmills, and so he had one of the mills removed. 

" The strange thing about Gheel is," he continued, " that 
most of the patients become harmless there. As the open-air 
hospital is now conducted, it is one of the most successful experi- 
ments in mental healing that has ever been made." 

I became intensely interested. " How, my friend, do you ac- 
count for this result ? " I asked, with a nervous curiosity. 

" By suggestion, in part. Gheel makes for the patients a new 
imagination. The insane folk believe that they will be harm- 
less there, and they are harmless. It is a new imagination that 
helps to heal in mental disease. The atmosphere of the place 
is quiet, and is haunted with legends of wonderful recovery. ' I 
am a little deranged,' said a prince who was being treated there, 
' but the quiet here helps me.' The quiet that helps one there 
is not only that of the air, fields, gardens, and linden-trees, but 



182 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

of the hope in all faces. The afflicted people are sent there to 
recover, and many of them do either recover or come to have 
a more hopeful imagination." 

I began to dream of all that the doctor had told me about 
Gheel as we passed along toward Antwerp, the sunny villas and 
the open fields still flying past us. The partial failure of men- 
tal powers accounts for so many things that are strange and 
sad in life that I have long felt, though not myself a physician, 
a most sympathetic interest in what relates to the help and 
healing of the insane. 

While I was thus dreaming, the doctor said to me, " Gheel 
is a ' commune,' a ' kindergarten,' for those who have become 
children again. It leads the imagination into free air and 
fields." 

A '' commune " — a '' kindergarten." I recalled the old New 
England traditions of tying those whose wills became weak, and 
nerves unbalanced and irresponsive, to bedposts and staples ; of 
such as rattled their chains on the approach of friends, and 
whose cries and moans made wakeful nights in lonely houses, 
until merciful death brought the healing of silence ; of suicides 
who, on account of their disease, were buried in lots apart from 
the common villages of the dead, and upon whose graves in old 
England, if not in New, the ignorant cast stones with looks of 
terror. " I am going to be mad," said poor George III., " and I 
wish that I were dead." But death did not come ; he came to 
live at last in a padded room, and Waterloo passed and he knew 
it not. As said poor Charles Lamb, — 

" for ills like these 
Christ is the only cure : say less than this, 
And say it to the winds." 

There is no experience in life, however hard or sad, that one 
may not glorify by a noble sympathy. Charles Lamb was a 



A STRANGE TALE OF GHEEL 183 

better man for the loving care that he bestowed upon his peri- 
odically insane sister ; he saw life with a clearer vision for this 
experience, and it imparted to his genius and wit the grace and 
tone of a beautiful charity that was the love of the world. 

" It is not mental hypnotism," I said to the doctor ; " it is the 
power of the human heart that has made a healing fountain of 
Gheel." 

The high tower of Antwerp cathedral began to rise in the 
blue air — the " lace tower," whose chimes never cease — the 
crown of glory of the land and sea. We were in the city of 
Rubens soon, and the next day the doctor met me in the hotel 
reading-room, and said : 

" Where shall we go — to the Rubens collection ? " 

" It is a lovely day ; let us go to Gheel." 

" To confirm your view that the wonder one may observe 
there is the result of sympathetic faith in human nature, and 
not of hypnotism ? " said he. " We will go." 

It was a lovely day, and the country was most beautiful along 
our way. I never saw a more restful level landscape. There 
is a vivid, lustrous greenness in the low countries of Belgium 
and Holland that, except in England, is seldom to be seen else- 
where in the world, — a greenness that leads to the semicircle 
of the embanked sea, where everything gleams, glows, and 
glistens. Red poppies, like those one sees in early summer on 
the battle-field of Waterloo, sprinkle the airy verdure. Every- 
where were blooming gardens, and picturesque peasant women 
at work in them. At a little distance from the city giant wind- 
mills. began to appear, antique, castle-like structures, with great 
arms that seemed to be putting to flight some invading foe. 
On the level landscape, and in the clear bright air, near and far, 
they always attracted and delighted the eye. 

The conductor on guard cried out, " Gheel ! " I looked out. 

" Where ? " I asked. 



184 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

There was spread out before us much the same broad green 
landscape, bright sunlight, and windmills. We passed from the 
car to the platform. In the distance two great churches arose, 
one of them seemingly in the fields. They looked like cathe- 
drals from which the city had vanished. 

Quiet ? We recalled the prince who sought the influences of 
the place some ten or more years ago, and said to a friend whom 
he met there, " I am a little deranged, but the quiet here helps 
me." There is something pathetic in the condition of one who 
thus understood so well his own case, and whose apprehensions 
must haye been that he would lose control of self. His view of 
Gheel will be shared at once by the nervous visitor. The quiet 
is atmospheric — it can be felt. It is hypnotic. 

The people who left the cars walked leisurely along the 
blooming sidewalk of a winding road. A hote, as a host is 
called, or one who boards the paying patients, came down to 
the depot to meet some one who was being treated there. A 
nourricier^ as a cottager who cares for the poor is called, 
appeared there also in a peasant frock, and went away alone. 
There were dog-carts in the road ; there are these cheerful carts, 
in which three dogs do the work of a horse, everywhere in 
Gheel. The peasants peddle their milk and vegetables in these 
picturesque vehicles. The patients ride in them. 

I followed the doctor, who followed the people. 

We came at last to a little town like a place in a German 
story-book. The houses were old, the streets clean and simple ; 
the square was like that of '' Old Antwerp " as exhibited at last 
year's exposition, or in 1894. Over all, like a mountain, loomed 
the old church. 

The door of the church was open to the sun. The doctor 
went in, and I followed him. It was a vision : the great crucifix 
hanging from the arch over the resplendent altar ; the fine 
carvings of the Stations of the Cross ; the pulpit borne up by 



A STBAI^GE TALE OF GllEEL 185 

cherubs ; the pictures, decorations, and the htyniiony of the 
whole. I could have remained there for hours in the silence of 
such a beautiful revelation. 

" We will now go to the hospital village," said the doctor, 

" Where ? " 

I saw no hospital — nothing that would remind one of such 
an institution. But the hospital there is not an institution ; it 
is a place, a village, a hamlet. 

We turned a corner at last, when there came to view a vision 
as lovely as that in the church. It was an arch formed by a 
mile or more of linden-trees. The vista was a long, cool shadow 
in the broad fields of the sun. On one side of this avenue was 
the hospital, a little village of neat brick houses, and on the 
other side houses of the farm folk, with thatched or straw- 
covered roofs, with green moss about the roomy chimneys. 

We stopped, for the scene was a charm. Then the shadow of 
the place came into my mind. Think of the anxiety, the suffer- 
ing, the flickering hopes, the long hours of despair, the sleepless 
nights, the thoughts of loved ones, the heart pain at the neglect 
of the world, the longings for life, the longings for death that 
does not come, that this old bowery town has seen ! 

"Doctor," I asked, "what is the best preventive against a 
diseased mind ? " 

" The habit of self-control in youth," he answered. 

" And what is the cure ? " 

" A new imagination in a free life like that you may find 
here. Nearly all of the methods of treatment of the insane in 
the past have been a mistake." 

Two patients passed by us. One had a cheerful face, the 
other seemed to be the ghost of a life. The doctor directed my 
attention to them. 

" At Gheel," he said, " a patient who is recovering is given 
the charge of one who is disordered and depressed. The method 



186 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

gives to one responsibility, and to the other hope ; it helps both." 

A little woman came ambling by with a fantastic handker- 
chief over her head. She seemed to be in the realm of the 
imagination. She stopped and dropped a curtsey. 

" Have you lost your way ? " she asked. 

" I never was here before," I replied. 

" Always keep your way when you have it, and you will never 
get lost." She dropped another curtsey and said : " Trouble 
dwells in houses. I live out-of-doors ; it is good for my head. 
I should be well enough if I hadn't any head." She added, 
" Some people think that 1 do not know much, and I rather 
guess that they are not much mistaken." She had evidently 
used one word too many. She looked happy and ambled away. 

More pleasing scenes were coming into view. The peasants 
were returning from some market in dog-carts. The little dogs 
were perfect pictures of the happiness of helpful industry. 

We entered a small neat brick house, and there met Doctor 
Peeters, the superintendent of the Commune, who speaks English 
well. 

" Gheel," said Doctor Peeters to us, evidently intending the 
information for me, '' is an open establishment without walls, 
without gates, or any instruments of force. The patients who 
come here are examined, and their cases are studied in the 
hospital cottages ; they are then sent out into the Commune, 
each district of which is under a medical inspector. A large 
number of these patients think that they are persecuted, and the 
7iourriciers, or farm people who board them, have learned such 
control as to dispel such illusions from their minds. It is not 
intended that a harsh, censorious word should be spoken at 
Gheel." 

" Nagging keeps fresh the sore of the mind," said my friend 
the Swiss doctor. " Let us go out into the roads of the 
Commune." 



A STRANGE TALE OF GHEEL 189 

The doctor led the way, and bidding good-bye to Doctor 
Peeters, I followed him. We passed by green gardens and vine- 
shaded doors. We became tired at last, and sat down on a wall 
under the trees, near which the fans of a giant windmill were 
circling in the bright clear air. 

" Doctor, you said that you once sent a patient here, and that 
the case was a very strange one." 

" Her name was Lucia Van Ness," said the doctor. " I will 
tell you her story, for the scene of her last hours has never 
ceased to impress me. 

'' Lucia Van Ness was a beautiful French peasant girl. She 
lived near Geneva, Switzerland, in the little town of Voltaire- 
Ferney, near the chateau that contains the heart of Voltaire, 
and whose garden commands a glorious view of Mt. Blanc. 
Her mother was a widow, and the girl grew up among the 
peasantry, and attracted attention wherever she went by her 
singular beauty and grace. She was very devoted to her mother, 
and won the love of all people by her wit, sympathy, and 
charity ; and yet she was peculiar. There were times when she 
seemed to be absent from herself, to lose the consciousness of 
things around her, and to live in a dream. When her mother 
spoke to her in these moods, she would start up and say, 'Oh, 
mother, where was I ? I have been away.' 

" An English gentleman, a wealthy bachelor of a worthy 
family, took a villa or chateau that overlooked Lake Leman, at 
a place near to the widow's cottage. His name was Cyril. He 
was possessed of a fine face and manner ; was very susceptible, 
amiable, and generous ; and he won the affection of the French 
and Swiss peasants. He liked to make picnics for these people 
on Mt. Saleve and in the wood overlooking the junction of the 
Arve and the Rhone, and at one of these picnics he chanced to 
meet Lucia Van Ness ; and, delighted with her fresh beauty and 
amiable simplicity, he showed her much attention. The girl 



190 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

immediately fell madly in love with him, and from that time 
her only thought seemed to be how she might see him or meet 
him. She would loiter about his gates to see him pass out in 
his carriage, and to receive the kindly recognition that he gave 
to those whom he knew. Her earnest face began to haunt him 
in his thoughts of companionship as no other ever had done. 
She used to go with her old mother on sunny afternoons to 
Yoltaire's Garden, which was open to the public, and sit on the 
seats that commanded the magnificent mountain view. Cyril 
once met her there, and they passed together through the long 
covered arbor, among the ivies and myrtles, and curious outlooks 
to the vistas cut in the hedge walls. 

" Her soul in that walk appealed to him. She became 
the vision of his love. He came to feel that his happi- 
ness in life was at the mercy of this simple and beautiful 
French girl, and one day he came to her cottage and said to the 
widow : 

" ' I wish to see your daughter alone this evening, and to pay 
her the greatest honor that a man can offer to a woman. Have 
I your consent ? ' 

" ' I would not deny my daughter a crown,' said the old 
French lady, overwhelmed with surprise. 

"That night he declared his love to Lucia. She received 
such a shock of joy that she fell at his feet, saying : 

" ' This is too much ! I only wish that I could die for you. 
I have no will but yours.' 

" The wedding was planned. It was to take place in one of 
the churches in Geneva; and Cyril was so pleased with the 
spirit of his bride that he wished to make the event a notable 
one. He bestowed upon the girl the most beautiful presents. 
But it was observed that she had not been herself since the 
shock of joy that followed the young man's avowal of his love. 
There were times that she seemed to forget who she was ; to 



A STRANGE TALE OF GUEEL 191 

lose, as it were, her identity ; and to recover from the state of 
mental absence as from a trance or dream. 

" The wedding-day came. The little village was like a holi- 
day, all the peasant folk were so happy, and the simple French 
women were so proud of the bride. The bells rang out, and all 
hearts beat with the bells. The church doors opened, and a 
crowd filled the church amid pealing music and strewings of 
flowers. 

" Cyril's coach waited at the door of the cottage, and in it 
the bridegroom watched for that door to open under the vines. 
It did not open, but the bells rang on. The bridegroom's face 
was framed in the coach door. 

" A man, at last, who had come out of a back door, appeared 
in the hedge rows. 

u ( wj^y (jQgg gi^Q ^Q^ come ? ' gasped Cyril. 

" ' It is awful ! ' said the man. 

" ' What is awful ? ' asked Cyril, with white face, leaping 
out of the coach. 

" ' Haven't they told you ? ' said the man. 

" ' They have told me nothing. For God's sake, what has 
happened ? ' 

" ' She has gone mad.' 

" So it was. When the bells were filling the streets with joy, 
and she did not appear, they had forced open the door of her 
room, and her mother had found her there on her bed, lying in 
a heap, her bridal dress and veil and flowers wrapped around 
her. She lifted her hands and cried : 

"'My brain burns; I cannot bear it! This is too much. 
Let me die ! ' 

" Presently she knew no one, not even her mother. 

" There was no wedding. The bells ceased ringing. The 
news of what had happened stopped the joyous pulse -beat of 
every heart. People looked into each other's faces. There were 



192 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

tears in many eyes. The people all gathered in the street before 
the door. 

" Cyril rushed into the house. She did not know him. The 
old mother fell into his arms. He pressed her to his bosom, 
and said : 

" ' I am a man of honor, and be she mad or sane, I will 
marry her. She will be better soon. Oh, my Lucia, that this 
should come to thee ! ' 

" She recovered slowly. Cyril became her nurse, and he 
privately married her. 

'' They were happy for some years, when she became strange 
at times, and people saw that a shadow was coming. She 
became jealous of Cyril without cause, and her love turned into 
hatred. She for a time avoided him, and refused to speak to 
him, and she then made an attempt to take his life. 

'' What was he to do ? 

" He brought the case to me. 

" ' Let me take her to Gheel,' I said, ' the Belgian miracle- 
town, and find a place there with some experienced hSte where 
she would have rest and quiet in the wide, still country, and 
pure open air.' 

" ' Yes, but she can have quiet and good air in the Alpine 
valleys.' 

" ' Her imagination is disordered,' I said. ' Gheel corrects the 
imagination beyond any place that I ever knew.' 

" ' How is that ? ' he asked. 

" ' The open air, as I said, the plain, nourishing food, the 
atmosphere of hope and sympathy, the religious faith, the sight 
of restored people, all favorably affect the deranged fancy. That 
is the place for her. Let me take her away.' 

" I brought her here. She talked constantly about the cruelty 
and tyranny of her husband on the way. 

" Lucia's cloud began to lift at Gheel. But, as it did so, she 



A STRANGE TALE OF GHEEL 193 

seemed to have forgotten Cyril. He visited her, but she received 
him as a stranger. She recalled that she had had a husband, 
but she did not associate him with Cyril. 

" Her mother died in these dark days, but she seemed to have 
forgotten that she had had a mother. Thus a year passed. 

" ' Did you ever know a case like mine ? ' she would ask, 
pitifully, when there came to her a dim consciousness that she 
was a patient here. 

" There was a case at Gheel that somewhat resembled hers, 
and as soon as this patient began to recover, I saw in the experi- 
ence a ray of hope for her. The woman was called Annie. 

" I placed poor Lucia under the charge of this woman, who 
had been subject to like illusions. As soon as they met, Lucia 
seemed to become cheerful. I noted the change, and sent for 
Cyril. 

" I recall the meeting well. Cyril came to Gheel, and follow- 
ing my directions he sat down upon the bank under the lindens 
at her hour for a walk. 

'' The old beauty had come back to her face. It was early 
summer, and the birds were singing in the fields, and she her- 
self approached us that day humming some scrap of a song. 

" As she came up to us she stopped. She spoke to me in a 
very cheerful way ; then looked Cyril full in the face, and said : 
' I seem to have met you somewhere before. I have seen you 
in my dreams.^ 

"'I have come here hoping to meet you,' said Cyril. 'Do 
you not know me ? ' 

" She stepped back ; her eyes swam with tears. 

" ' Then you do pity me, don't you ? ' 

"'Yes, Lucia.' 

" ' And you will undertake my case ? ' 

*' ' Yes. What case, Lucia ? ' 

" ' You will protect me from him, from him. I do not seem 



194 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

to remember now ; from him who was my enemy. They used 
to say that he was my husband, or something like that, but he 
was not ; he never was. 1 feel sure that you will protect me. 
Will you come and see me at the cottage ? ' 

" The two went back to the cottage hand in hand. They 
talked long and lovingly together, and as they parted, she said 
to me : 

" ' I am happy again. This man has promised to be my 
protector.' 

'' Day after day Cyril went to see her, and many were the 
long walks that they took under the lindens. 

" One day I met her, and she touched my arm and said : 

" ' Doctor, I have a secret to tell you. It makes me so happj. 
I am engage d."* 

" ' Engaged ? To whom ? ' 

" ' To Cyril ! It is a good engagement. He has a true heart, 
and if there be a heaven, it was paved in gold for such as he.' 

" ' He is a true man,' said I. 

" ' Yes, he is a true man,' she added. ' And he will be good 
to me.' 

" ' He surely will.' 

" ' May I go away with him ? ' 

" ' You may. That would be a wise thing to do. I know 
Cyril. He will always be good to you. I am glad that you are 
going away together.' 

" Cyril had courted his wife again, and had again received 
from her the promise of her love. 

" I honor the man who is true to his wife under all conditions 
and circumstances in such a case of irresponsible mental afflic- 
tion, who suffers from her and with her, and whose heart never 
forgets the vow at the altar. His experience will ennoble his 
life, and make the vista of it an everlasting support for his own 
infirmities. 



A STRANGE TALE OF GHEEL 195 

" Cyril called in a priest one day, and he joined the hands of 
the two, and blessed them, and told them that they were husband 
and wife. 

" Ten years of happiness passed in this newly wedded love, 
and then the poor woman withered, and one day she lay dying. 

" ' Cyril, I am nearing the gates. I have been looking out on 
the Alpine glow ; it is the last time. I had a husband once, 
before you. My mind became weak, and a darkness came into 
it ; I was not myself — I did not treat him well. It hurts me 
now to think of it. I did not treat him well. He was good to 
me, but I was not myself.' 

" ' Lucia, what was his name ? ' 

" ' His name was — I have tried to remember his name. It 
comes to me now. His name was Cyril — like yours. He lived 
on the borders of Lake Leman, near Geneva. I loved him. 
We used to. walk together in the garden of Yoltaire-Ferney. 
Did you ever know him V 

'-' ' Yes, Lucia, I know him well.' 

" ' Cyril, come here. I did not treat him well — I was not 
myself. You do pity me, don't you ? Could you find him and 
send him to me ? Is he near ? ' 

" ' Yes, Lucia ? ' 

" ' Then go, Cyril, go. Send him to me. I want to tell him 
that I was not myself, that there came a great darkness upon 
me, and I was lost in life. I can die easy then. God knows 
that I have done the best I could in life ! You do pity me ? ' 

" He left the room. As he was going out, she said : 

" ' Send him alone.' 

" He presently returned. She put out her hands. 

" ' You are Cyril, my old husband long gone. I can see that 
you are. Ho you remember the picnic on the Sal^ve, and the 
garden, and the lake ? ' 

" ' Yes, Lucia, I remember them well.' 



196 TBAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" ' The bells rung. We did not marry then ; but you were 
true. You loved and pitied me. I turned against you — my 
mind lost its power. I was tempted, and I did not know. You 
will forgive me, won't you ? ' 

" ' It was all overlooked long ago. There was nothing to 
forgive. You were sick.' 

" ' Go and call Cyril.' 

" He went out, and came back again. 

" ' He has forgiven me, and now I forgive everybody ; and 
may God forgive me ! I am going ; I feel life leaving me. 
You have been true to me. He was true, and you have been 
true, and I did the best I could in the darkness. Go and call 
Cyril again. I want to see you both. You both have been true.' 

" He left her, and presently returned, and stood in the door. 

" ' You are Cyril. Both of you are Cyril ? I see now ; both 
of you are Cyril, and you have been true ! Oh, this is too 
much 1 I am too happy to bear it ; I do not deserve such hap- 
piness as this. I am going fast.' Her face brightened. ' Cyril, 
do you remember Gheel ? ' 

" ' Yes, Lucia, and the gardens and the fields and the wind- 
mills.' 

" ' And the linden-trees. I was healed at Gheel ; only my 
memory was not left right. Do you know what it was that 
healed me ? It was Annie's hand. She "had been like me, and 
she could feel for me. In cases like mine it is sympathy that 
saves. You brought Annie to me. 

" ' How serene and happy I was when healing came and I 
used to walk under the linden-trees ! I can hear the winds there 
now, and the ripple of the leaves, and all the birds singing. 

" ' I can feel Annie's hand still. Let me take yours. I am 
faint ; I am going now. Take me by the hand once more. The 
bells are ringing ; there will be no disappointment there, where 
I am going.' 



A STEANGE TALE OF GHEEL 197 

" She breathed feebly. 

"'Cyril, I can feel your hand. It — is — growing — dark, 
but I can feel your hand, and you have led me all the way in 
the sunlight and in the shadow. Your heart is beating in your 
hand, and, Cyril, oh, Cyril, I am so happy in the shadow, 
your — hand — has — been — true.' 

" They carried her body back to the little village on Lake 
Leman, and the old French bell that had rang out for her 
wedding tolled forty times ; and the peasants stripped the roses 
from their gardens and covered with them the new earth of her 
grave." 

The story told among the lindens of Gheel that whispered of 
hope in the green garden of the sands of the sea had for my 
ears this simple interpretation : the power of the human heart 
to make a better imagination is one of the most transforming 
influences of life. This is the lever of uplifting hands every- 
where, and this is one of the secrets of the miracles of beautiful 
Gheel in the Campine. 

In the German towns Mrs. Barnard and Lucy stopped to visit 
the kindergarten schools. Mrs. Barnard had helped to fill 
Boston with sand gardens for children, and she wished to 
see the German Kinderplatz. Such visits delayed the way to 
Russia, to which the boys were impatient to go. 

" Why are we spending so much time at play gardens ? " 
asked Charles of his father and mother, at Berlin. 

His father gave him a very definite answer. 

" Because," said he, " primary-school education is the founda- 
tion of national character. Your mother and Lucy in Germany 
are studying what is best in the new system of education." 

Mrs. Barnard related some incidents which revealed to the 
boys the value of the German children's gardens. 



198 



TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 



u i Primary-school education is the foundation of national 
character,' said Sarmiento, President of the Argentina Republic 
and the great apostle of South American development by the 
means of North American Normal Schools. He had read the 
works of Horace Mann, and he saw the possibilities of South 
America in the vision that arose in the study of these works. 
He was sent to the United States as Argentine minister while 
his philosophical opinions were forming. Here he enjoyed the 
friendship of Charles Sumner, and came to the conclusion that 
the States owed their force of progress to their school system. 

" That the great Argentine was right in his view of the influ- 
ence and value of the primary school is the opinion of all clear 
observers. The republic of childhood is the republic of young 
manhood, and that is the republic of the age and of the future. 
But Sarmiento saw that something was yet needed in our admi- 
rable school system ; that memory education alone does not 
really educate. ' Memory education,' in effect, said Pestalozzi, 
' is nothing but instruction.' The education of the heart and 
conscience must come first in true primary-school education. 
This Sarmiento saw, and the North American primary school in 
South America has been replaced in Buenos Ayres, Santiago, 
and Callao by the beginnings of kindergarten education, which 
seeks to put the principles of the Sermon on the Mount of 
Beatitudes into the conduct of the child ; to model the child 
to live, rather than to get a living, for he who lives rightly will 
get a living. 

" Dom Pedro of Brazil saw education in the same light, and 
took with him from New York a company of kindergarten 
teachers, with whom he hoped to begin a new education in 
Brazil, founded on character-building principles. 

" After the fall of Prussia before Napoleon I., Queen Louisa 
saw the educational needs of the empire on the Rhine. The 
king said in her hearing : ' We must have a new education to 







^'>^A^:i 



CHINESE COLOR - BEARER. 



A STRANGE TALE OF GIIEEL 201 

make a new generation of men.' ' Let me send a company 
of students to Pestalozzi at Yverdon,' said the queen. Pesta- 
lozzi's institute under the Jura, in the great old castle overlook- 
ing the purple Neuchatel, made character-building the first work 
of the teacher. The queen sent the students. Two genera- 
tions passed. Napoleon III. went down before Prussia, and 
philosophers said, ' It was Pestalozzi who did it ! ' 

" People to-day are everywhere saying, in regard to our 
present stage of national development : ' We must have a new 
education to make a new generation of men.' Memory educa- 
tion alone does not educate. Our old system of primary school 
education was modelled after the administration of a kingdom 
rather than a republic. As a rule, old-time primary schools 
were absolute monarchies. The child was not developed ; he 
was merely taught to obey, or else to feel the rod. 

'' A change in primary -school education, after the visions of 
Queen Louisa, Cousin, Sarmiento, Dom Pedro, and of noble 
Elizabeth Peabody, is making its influence felt in every Ameri- 
can city and town. The new education bears the belittling 
name of ' kindergarten,' but it has for its basis the deepest and 
most beneficent principles of philosophy. The name ' kinder- 
garten ' used to stand for a play school in the popular imagina- 
tion ; it now represents the Pestalozzian-Froebel philosophy, 
which must become a controlling influence in our system of 
education, if the republic is to have character and live. The 
kindergarten principle of education is one of the most important 
topics that can engage the public mind ; the hopes of the new 
age are in it. It is to lead a Kindergarten Age. 

" This education has character, not accomplishments and 
money-making, for its end. Its method is to ' learn by doing.' 
The happiest moment in a child's life is that in which it says, 
' See what I have made ! ' or, ' See what I have made for you ! ' 
To create things for the happiness of others is the true child 



202 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

life, and so the playground is made to train the soul for true- 
hearted living. The individuality of the pupil is made sacred to 
the teacher, and each child is developed after his own gift, 
as though there were no other child in the world. Boston once 
had twenty -seven kindergarten schools- — charities. These 
schools became a part of the public school system and multi- 
plied. The mere charitable kindergartens in that city are now 
largely sustained by the churches ; the city controls the others ; 
and one may to-day see there sand gardens provided by the 
school board for the children of the poor, and kindergarten 
rooms filled, in some places, largely with Jewish children, sus- 
tained by churches that have awakened to the new needs of the 
age. 

" There are reasons why an American traveller should study 
kindergarten in Germany. People should seek for the best 
methods of helping human needs in every country in order to 
perfect them in their own country. I shall study the beginnings 
of kindergarten in China." 

" Kindergartens in China ! " exclaimed Lucy. " Are there 
such schools there ? If China could be filled with kinder- 
gartens what would be their influence ? " 

" Look at Switzerland," said Mrs. Barnard. 

" Switzerland, in which republics and schools were born, pre- 
sents a model in this rapidly developing system of education. 
She claims to owe her happy social condition to her school 
principles and methods. In Switzerland all children are 
educated for the protection of the character of the state. 
The Swiss republic has made perpetual treaties of peace with 
the European powers, so that revenues which otherwise might 
go to standing armies might be used for educational purposes. 
She gives the veto power to the people. The republic has abol- 
ished capital punishment, and put the restraints of reformation 
. in place of the gallows. In some cases, she pensions her faithful 



A STEANGE TALE OF GHEEL 203 

teachers. She is the true children's land. Out of some eighty- 
five thousand heads of families, about sixty-five thousand own 
property. The republic claims that these favorable conditions 
are due to her schools. 

" These schools teach equality. This is no unimportant lesson 
at the present time. Gladstone advocated the cause of Afghan- 
istan and of South Africa against England, on the ground that 
the British Empire could not afford to break the law of equal 
rights. This teaching lies at the foundation of the stability of 
all Christian countries." 

She added : " I believe that missionary work in China in 
the near future will take the form of the kindergarten school." 



CHAPTER XIY. 

THE GREAT ASIAN TEA FAIR OF NIJNI- NOVGOROD 

Our tourists to the industrial centres went to Hamburg, an 
easy journey by rail, and thence to Moscow, another easy jour- 
ney. Here they were in the city of tragic histories and jewels 
and bells. Here, even in summer, the sun shone cold, like the 
light in the jewels. They visited the splendid churches, the 
famous Kremlin, and then went out of the old capital by rail to 
attend the gatherings from all Asia at the great fair-ground at 
Nijni- Novgorod. 

Edna Dean Proctor says in a spirited poem on the Fair : 

" Now, by the Tower of Babel, 
Was ever such a crowd ! " 

The great Asian fair, here on the banks of the Volga, has 
been held for centuries. It opens in mid-summer, and may 
gather here a million people in a season. One may find all 
Asia here, in representatives, but especially China, India, and 
Tartar Russia. 

" Here stalk Siberian hunters, 

There tents a Kirgis clan 
By mournful-eyed Armenians 

From wave -girt Astrakan, 
And Russ and Pole and Tartar, 

And mounted Cossack proud ! 
Now, by the Tower of Babel, 

Was ever such a crowd ! " 

204 



ASIAN TEA FAIR OF NIJNI- NOVGOROD 205 

The party stopped at the Hotel Riissie, a mile or more from 
the streets of the fair. These streets were once the variety 
store of Asia. 

The people came here in clans and travelling companies 
of bartering traders. 

In midsummer the caravans from China and the Oxus could 
be seen swaying over the ocean-like plains toward the lower 
Novgorod of the Volga. A thousand camels came. Boats 
from hundreds of towns and many provinces crowded the 
Volga. There was one place where a student from the West 
could see Asia in miniature — it was here. 

China sent here her choicest teas — " caravan teas." Tea 
was the greatest of all the commodities of the fair. It was 
also the luxury of the fair. 

" Russian tea " — how is it made ? A few choice tea leaves 
and a bit of lemon constitute the beverage. It is drunk while 
nibbling a lump of hard sugar, held in the hand, and is taken in 
this way very slowly, 

China, in old days, may be said to have " unloaded " her teas 
at Nijni. Here were streets of tea shops, and " story-telling 
hongs," where tea was tasted for the market, before general dis- 
tribution. Here was the trading-place for furs, from wolf skins 
to sables. The poor hunter bartered his furs for fabrics and 
teas. 

Nights here were full of festivities, — dancing girls, gypsies, 
jugglers, and entertainers of all kinds made a vast vaudeville 
under the moon and stars. 

Ah Hue was at home here. He began his interesting in- 
structions by explaining to the Barnards and Louis the choice 
teas, how they were grown, cured, packed, and conveyed by 
caravan, and the " brick tea," a coarse and cheap brand, which 
was pressed hard into " bricks," and sold at a low cost to poor 
people. 



206 TBAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

TEA 

The cultivation of tea extends over more than a thousand 
years, and half the world drinks it. Its origin is ascribed to a 
pious Buddhist who sacrificed his beard, threw it upon the 
ground, where it sprung up and produced a plant which would 
bring joy to the heart. The plant is really a cultivated wild 
shrub and evergreen, some three to five feet high. It has 
pretty flowers, and black and green tea may be made from the 
leaves of the same plant. It is a hardy plant of exuberant 
growth. 

Tea meets some yet unknown need of the human system, and 
its use is becoming universal. 

An early Chinese writer has said all that is known in favor 
of the use of tea : 

" It tempers the spirits, harmonises the mind, dispels lassitude, 
relieves fatigue, awakens thought, prevents drowsiness, re- 
freshes the body, and clears the perceptive faculties." 

These things, if true, must make the herb indeed a benefac- 
tion, and may well commend it to the poets, as it has done, and 
make it worthy of a silver porringer. The claims may, per- 
haps, be summed up in a single sentence, — tea contains tannin. 

In 1677, the East India Company began to import tea to 
England. The herb, as a beverage, grew in favor, and the 
profits of the trade in value. 

China consumes some two hundred million pounds of tea an- 
nually, and yet is waking up from her long quiet. The use of 
tea in England and her colonies, in Russia and in the United 
States, grows with the populations of these countries. There is 
not likely to arise any substitute for it, and while the world 
drinks it, China can hardly fail to prosper in supplying the 
common need. Her silk trade may fail or be superseded, but 
never her tea. 



TEA 207 

Henry Charles Sirr, M. A., in his great work on China and 
the Chinese, presents the curious facts that underlie the process 
of tea curing — the secret of the process by which the leaves 
of this common shrub are made to affect the human system in 
all lands so agreeably. 

The delightful flavor of tea is the result of art. 

Of this art, Mr. Sirr says in easy descriptive language : 

" The leaves of the tea-plant, when newly gathered, do not in 
the least resemble the dry leaves, either in odor or flavor ; they 
have not either a sharp, aromatic, or bitter taste. Their highly 
prized qualities of pleasant taste and delightful odor, which 
they afterward exhibit, are the effects of roasting, by which the 
leaves are dried, and of manipulation. We need not be sur- 
prised at the effect produced by roasting upon the tea-leaves, as 
every one knows that unroasted coffee possesses naught of the 
agreeable aroma for which it is peculiar after having undergone 
the process. 

" Had a certain writer, formerly the East Indian Company's 
tea-taster at Canton, been aware of the various modes of prepar- 
ing the leaves, he would not have expressed his astonishment 
how any one, who had been in China, and who had only seen 
the different infusions of green and black tea, can consider both 
kinds of tea the leaves of one and the same plant. Let any one 
take a number of leaves of various sorts of tea, as they come to 
us in trade, soften them in hot water, and lay them side by side, 
and he will be convinced that there are not any distinguishing 
characteristics between the various kinds of black and green 
teas. But, although we think that it is clearly established that 
all kinds of tea are prepared from the same species of Thea, yet 
these various teas are grown and prepared each one in a par- 
ticular district. In one we find the green, in another the black, 
in a third the tea is found in almost a globular form, and in a 
fourth it is a little curled ; just like the vine, which is almost 



208 TRAVELLEE TALES OF CHINA 

everywhere the same species, from which is produced such an 
infinite variety of wines, all differing in flavor and bouquet. 



THE STORY OF TEA 

" The flower of the tea-shrub is white, composed of five 
leaves, and in shape is similar to the rose, and the berry 
resembles a small, moist nut. There are four gatherings of 
the black tea. The first is in early spring, when the young, 
delicate, and succulent leaves are plucked, from which the 
Pekoe tea is made. The second takes place about the 20th of 
April, when the leaves are large, which produces fragrant, full- 
flavored tea. The third is about the 6th of June, after the 
leaves have shot out anew ; this tea has little smell, is weak in 
flavor, and of a very dark color. The fourth takes place after 
the summer solstice, and another crop of leaves has sprung 
forth, and this tea is coarse in smell, but of a lighter color than 
the last. 

" Green teas, known in Europe, grow in the south of the 
province of Kiang-Nan, and may be classed, according to Mr. 
Ball, under the heads of Hyson and Singlo, the former being 
only the same shrub improved by cultivation and soil, taken 
from the high grounds and planted in the valleys round the 
embankment of fields, and manured, and now designated ' hill * 
and ' garden ' teas. There are two gatherings of the leaves of 
the green teas, one between the middle of April and the first 
of May, and the other at the summer solstice. The tea is ren- 
dered superior by being roasted immediately after the gathering, 
and previous exposure to the atmosphere or the sun is very 
injurious. Those which cannot be thus treated are, therefore, 
lightly spread over a brick floor, or, if this is not practicable, 
they are placed upon shaded stands, in bamboo trays ; in the 



THE STORY OF TEA 211 

latter case, a woman constantly examines the trays, and if she 
observes any indication of their heating or turning yellow, they 
must be instantly turned. 

" The kuo, used for roasting Hyson tea, is also a thin, cast- 
iron vessel ; the inside is bright from friction. It is much 
deeper than that formerly described, being ten inches in depth, 
and is set five inches below the level of the brickwork. It has 
several fiat protuberances, answering the purpose of handles, by 
which it is built into the brickwork. Its diameter is sixteen 
inches. A wood fire is lighted beneath, and the kuo is made 
nearly red-hot, half a pound of leaves is thrown in, and the 
steam which arises is considerable. A crackling noise is heard 
on their being thrown into the kuo, the workman keeping them 
constantly stirred with his hand, the heat obliging him to 
change hands repeatedly. After each turn he raises the leaves 
half a foot above the stove, shaking them on his hand ; this is 
continued almost as long as the operator can bear the heat. 
He finally turns them three or four times round the vessel, 
collects them in a heap, and throws them into a basket held 
by a man at his side. Any leaves remaining in the kuo are 
instantly removed with a damp cloth. 

'' The leaves are then rolled, as described in the same process 
for black tea, the balls are then shaken out, and the workmen 
manipulate the leaves, rolling them between their hands by 
drawing the right hand over the left, using a little pressure, 
thereby causing the leaves to twist regularly the same way. 
After this, having been spread on sieves, they are carried into 
a cooling room. If they cannot be immediately re-roasted, they 
must be turned in the sieves to prevent them from becoming 
yellow, but the sooner they are roasted after the rolling, the 
better. 

" It is rather a curious fact, nevertheless a true Mil, that in 
China good tea can rarely, if ever, be purchased by retail ; in 



212 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

short, unless you are lucky enough to have a friend among 
the merchants, who will procure a small chest of tea for you, 
the infusion or decoction made from the trash too often sold 
retail in China, under the denomination of tea, will be neither 
refreshing to the frame nor pleasant to the palate, and you may 
wish in vain, in the tea country, for a good cup of tea, wishing 
that you may get it. The finest and most delicious teas are 
never exported, being of too expensive a character, as the value 
of these teas is calculated by an equal weight of silver ; thus a 
catty of tea is sold for a catty of silver.^ These teas are usually 
bought by the mandarins and wealthy, either for their own con- 
sumption, or for cum-shaivs (presents). Some of this tea was 
presented to us, and the delicious flavor and aroma of the same 
is deeply engraved or engrafted on the tablets of our mental 
organization, and the heart of our memory. 

" Many of the mandarins and wealthy are as curious in their 
collection of teas as our connoisseurs of the juice of the grape 
are in their cellars of wine. The amateur of tea will feel as 
much pride, and derive as much pleasure from the commenda- 
tion of a judicious friend, who has tasted his various teas, as an 
Englishman would experience after producing his various wines, 
and receiving the praises of a good judge. Notwithstanding 
this national taste for teas, a Chinaman is by no means a 
member of the temperance society, as all we have come across 
have a great partiality for liquors, more especially cherry 
brandy, which is the favorite tipple of a Chinaman, belong he 
to what class he may ; of this beverage, a Chinaman will imbibe 
an incredibly large quantity in a very small space of time. 

" The mode of making tea in China is similar to that by 
which coffee is made in Turkey, namely, by putting the ingredi- 
ent into the vessel from which it is to be drank. The tea-leaves 
are put into a small cup or bowl, which has a lid or cover, boil- 

1 A catty is about one pound and a quarter. 



THE STORY OF TEA 213 

ing water is poured over it, and instantly covered, to prevent 
the escape of the aroma. In about five minutes, they consider 
the infusion as complete, and drink the tea without the addition 
of either milk or sugar. The bowl, or cup, is usually placed in 
a small filigree silver stand, somewhat the shape of a boat. 
These stands, or saucers, are frequently most beautifully and 
curiously enamelled, or chased ; the lid of the bowl is used as a 
spoon, the tea being sipped from it after it has been dipped out 
of the cup." 

The above description suggests that the tea habit may lead to 
the use of stronger beverages. But this subject, important as it 
is, we must leave to the sociologist. 



CHAPTER XV. 

A DESEET INK 

There was an immense tea-shop or '' hong " at Nijni, at which 
traders from all countries used to gather. It was a tea-drinking, 
story-telling place, and there the party were wont to come on 
sunny afternoons and early evenings, and there some curious 
stories of a light and amusing kind were told. One of these 
was by an old English traveller and trader. 



A TALE OF THE CARAVAN TEA 

An inn stood on the verge of the Desert of Gobi. It was 
near a town where caravans rested. The caravans carried teas 
into Russia, and returned with money, and the innkeeper 
became rich, and was a collector of the customs, and every- 
thing that he touched seemed to turn into gold. He was a Jew, 
and was called Jocobi. He was somewhat avaricious, and his 
avarice grew with his gains. 

The place was called the Caravansary of Jocobi the Jew. 

It grew in size. It was at first a walled house with beaten 
floors, where the post riders could throw down their mail-bags 
and lie down in their blankets and rest after a dust storm. 

Jocobi spread white tents around it, and made a walled garden 
there. 

Queer people lodged there, wanderers, fakirs, Buddhist priests, 
people with arms, bows, exiles from Russia, outcasts from Siberia, 

214 



A TALE OF THE CARAVAN TEA 215 

China, and India, strange Tartars of whom no one seemed to 
know. Such people came with the night and went with the day. 
They were as worlds to themselves. 

But for whatever service he rendered these people of the fierce 
sun and the dust storms, Jocobi made large charges, and his 
clayey walls and white tents enlarged. 

I once made a contract with some English people to take 
them over the desert. It was in the days of the Caravan Tea. 

There had arisen an opinion in England that caravan teas, or 
those brought to near posts by caravans, were better than those 
shipped from Canton or Hong Kong. So the people of wealth 
and luxury were willing to pay liberal prices for them. The 
name sounded well ; it created a great expectation by 
suggestion. 

These Englishmen were seeking a way to export teas by cara- 
vans, to be sold in English markets at large profits. 

So we set out from purple Pekin and came to the Desert Inn. 

I had never met Jocobi before, and I found him all smiles, 
and a very spirit of accommodation. He said : 

" Hospitality, thy name is the Desert Inn. It makes my 
heart light to offer the hospitality of mine inn to the English. 
The people of the w^hite isle, old Albion, are a great people ; 
they appreciate hospitality ; my best mats are yours ; you shall 
be feasted here, and shall drink caravan teas, made in the cup 
by Boabditti." 

Then he called, " Boabditti ! " 

A man with a dark visage, all bows and smiles, appeared. 

" You will make for these English merchants caravan tea." 

Boabditti soon reappeared. He brought in cups of steaming 
tea. They filled the great room with fragrance, as they were 
set down on little tables about the place. 

Next Jocobi offered the choicest cigars, imported from 
Havana in the blue Antilles, — the finest in all the world. 



216 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

Figs were brought. 

" These came from Smyrna," said Jocobi ; " I furnish no others 
to travellers who come here from the West. I only offer my 
best to travellers from the West. Great and renowned is the 
hospitality of the Desert Inn. The traveller, he wrap his cloak 
about him in the dark storm of the desert, but heaven herself 
wraps her divine mantle about him when he sinks down to rest 
in the Desert Inn. Jocobi, he haf a heart for the comfort of all 
mankind." 

The supper was ample for a desert inn. 

" I serves chops for Englishmen," said Jocobi. " The Bud- 
dhist he no eats flesh, but I know what it is that the Englishmen 
like, and I put my whole heart to serve the people after their 
habit. I eats sheep myself." 

Wines, — he served the finest to those of the party who used 
wines. 

" There are no wines in all the East so fine as those at the 
Desert Inn," said he, " and nothing is too good for the English- 
men from the throne of the seas." 

His divans were covered with choice silks, and his mats were 
deftly woven, and were picture parables. 

" We have not met in all the world greater hospitality than 
here," said one of the Englishmen on the next morning, when 
coffee filled the dining-room with fragrance. " I should like to 
stay here for a week." 

There was a New Englander in the party of five. He asked 
a question that presented a new thought to the Englishmen 
among all this boundless Oriental hospitality. 

" I wonder what the Jocobi will charge us," asked he. 

" Probably nothing," said one of the Englishmen. " This inn 
must stand for hospitality, and the Jew is rich. What arrange- 
ment did you make with him ? " asked he of me. 

" None," said I. " The way that he met us, with outstretched 



A TALE OF THE CARAVAN TEA 217 

arms and salams, took away my senses. I will ask him for his 
bill for tea, breakfast, and lodging, saying that we will leave the 
place before noon." 

So I went to his desk, and he pondered with uplifted finger. 

" I have been thinking," said he. 

He continued to think, and set down items and thought again. 

" Caravan tea," he said, " that caravan tea costs money." 

" All tea is caravan tea here," said I. 

" Not unless it is going to England," said he. 

I saw the difference. 

He at last came to me with his bill. 

" I should be lof (loath) to charge the gentlemen from the 
West anything, but all of the foods I have furnished are very 
expensive. Each little item represents, it does, the best that 
the world can afford. I haf here charged you a sovereign apiece 
for some little figs, but they came from the gardens of a palace, 
by Smyrna's far waters. The ship that brought them cost 
money, and the pilot was drowned. And the sheeps, they came 
from England, in cans, in boxes, and they are the sheeps of 
the lord of the isle. Tt is much I haf to charge you for them. 
I get such things for hospitality. I serve the world, not for 
mine own self, but for hospitality. I gif Englishmen my best. 
I honor and love the English." 

" How much is your bill ? " I asked. 

" It am twenty pound, just that for the sake of hospitality. 
That is a moderate charge, a very moderate charge, considering 
what you have had ; the caravans, the ships, the sheeps of the 
English lord, and all." 

" An hundred dollars for supper, breakfast, and lodging for 
six people ! " exclaimed the New Englander. " I won't pay it 
— or my part of it. This is outrageous." 

" A clear swindle," said one of the Englishmen. " I will not 
pay my part of it. I will appeal to the judge." 



218 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

'' You will appeal to the judge ?" said Jocobi. " Well, then, 
appeal to the judge. I am agreed." 

" I will appeal to the judge," said another Englishman. 

a Yqyj well," and Jocobi began to laugh. " You will appeal 
to the judge." He sat down. 

" Ha, ha, ha, ho, ho ! well, that makes me shake — it is so 
comical — you will appeal to the judge ! " 

" Yes, you desert villain," said Englishman number two. 

" He, he, ho ! — that makes me laugh. You will appeal to the 
judge!" 

'' Yes," said Englishman number one, a portly man, and the 
leader of the party of travellers, " I will appeal to the judge, and 
he shall let the law take its course. . You are a desert robber. 
I will go to the judge now." 

" Well, go — ha, ha, ha ! — ho, ho ! — go." 

The portly Englishman began to turn around in perplexity. 
Then he turned to Jocobi. 

" Will you submit the case to the judge ? " 

" Jocobi will submit the case to the judge. He loves justice." 

*•• Will you go with us to the judge ? " 

" I will go with you." 

" Is he a just man ? " 

" He is a just man — he will see that Jocobi has his pay for 
spreading out all the best that the world affords before his 
guests. He knows the value of caravan teas, and figs from 
Smyrna, and wines that are forty years old. He is a just man, 
and he will render you justice, and — " 

" Are you sure ?" 

" I am sure." 

" Well, we will submit the case to him." 

" That is good — so will T, and you will abide by his 
decision ? " 

" We will abide by his decision," said the portly Englishman. 



A TALE OF THE CARAVAX TEA 219 

" Come, let us go. How far shall we have to go ? Is it very far 
to the judge ?" 

" No very far," said Jocobi. 

" Where is the judge's office ? " asked the portly Englishman. 

" It is here." 

''In the Desert Inn?" 

" In the Desert Inn." 

" What is the judge's name ? " 

" Jocobi." 

" Not you ? " 

" The same. The Viceroy he seeks for a just judge for the 
desert. So he finds me here, and he makes me judge. I have 
decided your case already : it is one twenty pounds for the choic- 
est service on earth — caravans, ships, sheeps ; it is benevolence 
— it is hospitality. 1 serve the world. You will pay me the 
one hundred dollar. So decides the judge, and you said that 
you would abide by his decision." 

The twenty pounds were paid, and I received a lesson which 
I have never forgotten, but have often turned to good advantage 
in life. 

At Nijni Mrs. Barnard obtained a glimpse of the great empire 
of the Czar. She admired the Czar for the peace efforts that he 
had made. A tradition of the imperial family came to her at 
Moscow, and she gave it to verse. 



220 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 



THE WHITE CZARS THREE 



ALEXANDER I. 

Alexander, Czar of the Russias, 

To the princes of Vladimir's Halls 
" O princes, my mantle hangs heavy. 

And to you my conscience calls. 
To the golden tombs and hollow 

Soon Death will summon me ; 
Go, — free the serf from bondage. 

And the world from carnage free ! " 

To the golden tombs and hollow, 

To the dusty tombs and cold, - 
They bore the Czar, " The Blessed," 

'Mid lamps of burning gold. 
But thoughts of high suggestion 

Are impearled in deeds sublime, 
And words of conscience ever 

Burn into stars of time ! 

n. 

ALEXANDER II. 

It was midnight on the Finland, 

And o'er the wastes of snow. 
From the crystal sky of Winter 

The lamps of God hung low. 
A sea of ice was the ]S[eva, 

In the white light of the stars, 
And it locked in its arms of silence 

The city of the Czars. 



The palace was wrapped in shad 
And, dark in the starlit space 

The monolith rose before it 
From its battle-trophied base 



ow. 



THE WHITE CZARS THREE 221 

And the cross that crowned the colunm 

Seemed reaching to the stars 
O'er the white streets, hushed in silence, 

Round the palace of the Czars. 

The chapel's mullioned wiudows 

Are flushed with a sudden light; 
AVho comes to the shadowy altar 

In the silence of the night ? 
What prince with a deej) heart burden 

Approaches the jewelled shrine ? 
'Tis thy son, O Nicholas, faithful 

To thy visioned thought divine ! 

In that still church strains celestial, 

Like Bethlehem's, fill his ears, 
And the mystic words, " Good tidings " 

And " Peace on Earth " he hears. 
The j)riests hear not the voices 

As the golden lamps low swing, 
But kneel by the muffled stranger. 

In whose prayers the angels sing. 

'Tis the Czar, whose word in the morning 

Shall make the Russias free, 
From the Neva to the Ural, 

From the Steppe to the winter sea ; 
Who speaks, and a thousand steeples 

Ring freedom to every man, — 
From the serf on the white Ladoga, 

To the fisher of Astrachan. 

The morn sets its crowns of rubies 

In snows of turret and spire. 
And far shines the sea of Finland, 

Its crystal plains mingled with fire. 
Ring, bells on the Neva and Volga, 

Ye bells of the Caspian Sea : 
For a Voice in the morning aurora 

Has set the Russias free 1 



222 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

III. 

NICHOLAS II. 

The martyr, Alexander ; 

The nobles bear his bier 
Down the golden tombs and hollow 

Of the Halls of Vladimir ! 
Still over war -spent Europe 

War holds her sullen i-eign, 
And sink in purple oceans 

The shattered ships of Spain. 

A trump rends the air of the Norlands ; 

It rings from the Baltic clear ; 
It rises in white auroras 

O'er the halls of Vladimir. 
The Aryan race it summons 

The world from war to free ! 
Who blows Heaven's victor trumpets ? 

The last of the White Czars three ! 

The last Czar heard the call in the heavens 

And God's own trumpet took, 
And filled all the lands with its music, 

And the fortressed nations shook ; 
Then sunk on his throne, glory-smitten, 

His work in the call but begun, 
But thy ukase. Seer of the Finland, 

Shall follow the march of the sun ! 

For each thought of high suggestion 

Is impearled in deeds sublime ; 
The words of conscience ever 

Burn into stars of time ; 
And the silver trump that sounded 

In the white auroras forth. 
The world to peace shall waken, 

O messenger of the North! 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE SIBEKIAN EAILEOAD — THE NEW WAY ABOUND 

THE WOELD 

After a week or more at Lower Novgorod, during the 
gathering for the opening of the Fair, our tourists prepared to 
go to Stretinsk, on their way to Manchuria, Corea, and Pekin. 

The journey by rail, as arranged at Moscow, would be from 
Moscow to Stretinsk, with Yaman Tau, Omsk, Tomsk, Krasno- 
yarsk, and Irkutsk by the way. At Stretinsk, the party would 
take the steamer for the Amoor, and would proceed by the 
Amoor to Khabarovka, and thence by rail to Vladivostok. The 
fare from Moscow, first-class, would be 183 roubles, a rouble, 
or ruble, having the value of about fifty-seven cents in our 
coin, or one hundred copper copecks in Russian coin. 

The second-class service, which is nearly as good as the first- 
class, would be considerably less. The trip of six thousand 
miles might be accomplished by this route for thirty dollars. 
The cost of living would be some three roubles a day, or less. 

Vladivostok, metropolis of the northeast of the Russian 
Chinese world, is leaping into life, and should there ever again 
be naval contests in the world, it would seem likely they may be 
on the Sea of Japan or on the Yellow Sea. The scenery around 
the rising city is very noble, and our tourists had seen pictures 
of the place. The city has a rival in Port Arthur, not far 
distant, on the Yellow Sea. 

The log-house villages along the railroad route are alive with 
hucksters, who offer bottles of milk for ten copecks (less than 

223 



224 



TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 



ten cents), and hard-boiled eggs for less than ten cents a dozen, 
fried fish at low prices, black bread, and innocent beer. Many 
of these people are vegetarians, and some of them are dissenters 
from the Greek Church. In summer, flowers are offered for 
sale. 

The better class of cars have sleeping-berths, or seats so 




i 



STEAMER ON THE AMOOR 



constructed that they can be turned into " sleepers." The hard 
nine days' journey is made very comfortable, even in second-class 
travel. The third-class travel is rather hard, the fare being 
only about fourteen dollars. 

The nine days' travel would have been weary, especially to 
Lucy, but the little girl asked Ah Hue for jataka, or other 
Oriental tales, and his store of such stories seemed to be end- 



THE MONEY POT 225 

less. He told many of them to Lucy in these gray distances, 
where everything seemed the same, but the other English and 
American travellers listened to them in the little parlor on 
wheels. 



THE MONEY POT, OR DON'T BURY YOUR GOLD IN 
ANOTHER MAN'S WOOD 

There was an old landholder who had a girl wife and a son 
by a former marriage. He had married the girl because he was 
lonely ; she looked up to him as a father, but was fond of young 
people, and after a time he became jealous of her association 
with those of her own age, and reasoned : 

" As soon as I am dead she will marry a young man, and my 
gold will go to make some boor to live in luxury. This shall 
not be. I will bury my gold and leave nothing but my land on 
which my girl wife can live. Why should I leave her more ? " 

So he took with him a trusty slave, and went out to bury his 
gold in a money pot, and he said to his slave : 

"I shall not hide the money in my own wood, but in my 
neighbor's wood. They might find it in my own wood." 

So he went into the wood of his neighbor, who was also his 
friend, and buried his gold under a lusty tree, where was a hard 
rock. 

And he said to his slave : 

" My trusty servant, you have been true to me, and the 
noblest thing that can be said of any man is that he has a true 
heart. I want my young son to have my gold, and I would not 
have my young wife spend it on a second husband. You shall 
keep the secret of the treasure. When I am gone, and my son 
becomes of age, take my son here, and show him the place of 
the money pot, and tell him I loved him and was wise in 
providing for him." 



226 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

So they buried the money under the spreading tree at the 
foot of the high, hard rock. 

The old landholder died, and they searched for his gold, but 
could not find it, and the girl wife married again, and the old 
man's son became as a common servant to the new husband. 

The former wife began to question the slave in regard to the 
old man's gold. 

'' It must be hidden on the place, and you must guess where 
it is," said she. 

" If it be hidden on this place, I do not know where it is." 

The son grew up and became of age, but the old man's friend 
and neighbor had died, and the wood and tree and the rock had 
been sold, and the new landholder of the place was a very testy 
man, but he had a legal mind, and they made him a judge. 

One day the slave said to the old man's son : 

'' You are now of age, and I have a secret to tell you, — a 
secret that your father confided to me. I am going to take you 
to the place where he buried his gold in a money pot. It shall 
now be yours." 

The old slave and the young man went to the wood with a 
spade, but the girl wife, who was a woman now, saw them go- 
ing away together, each with a spade, and she followed them at 
a distance. She had long believed that the slave knew where 
the treasure was hidden. 

She saw them go to the great tree in the wood, and begin to 
dig at the foot of the great rock. Then she came upon them 
like a fury. 

" I have found you out," she cried. " The treasure was buried 
here to keep it from me. This shall not be. I will go back and 
call my husband. The treasure is mine. I will have justice, 
justice ; I have been wronged, and the wrong should be righted." 

So she went for her husband, and he came running to the 
place with a spade. He quickly found the money pot. 



THE MONEY POT 227 

*' It belongs to the son," said the slave. 

" It belongs to me," said the wife. 

" It belongs to my wife," said the husband, " and I will 
defend her rights with my life." 

" Touch not the money pot," said the wife. " I will go and 
call the owner of the land ; he is a judge, and he shall give 
judgment in the matter. Stay where you are by the rock." 

The three awaited her return. She came back with the 
judge, the owner of the wood. The latter sat down on the rock 
under the tree to hear the case. 

The slave said : 

" My master buried the money pot here for the use of his son 
when he should become of age. He entrusted the secret to me." 

The wife said : " The property of my husband was mine. He 
hid the treasure away from me and defrauded me. Now to 
whom does the gold belong ? " 

" To the owner of the land," said the judge. " It is mine." 

The wife shrieked. 

" He should not have buried his gold in another man's wood," 
said she. 

" But the slave has been faithful, so I will divide the treasure 
with him." 

The wife shrieked again. 

" Never entrust to another man's estate what you should keep 
for yourself," said she. 

The judge kept the treasure for a time, then divided it with 
the slave, and the slave divided his part of the treasure with the 
son. 

The slave became wise and a counsellor. Among the wise 
things that he used to say was : 

" Never bury your gold in another man's land, — we can 
never tell what may happen. The changes of life are many. 
Never fool yourself." 



228 TBAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 



JATAKA STORY — THE ALARMED HARE 

There was once a little hare who borrowed trouble. He sat 
under the sacred trees and thought much of the dangers of life. 
One day he thought this thought : 

" If the earth were to fall, what would become of me ? " 

The thought greatly troubled him, when there dropped a 
mango from the tree. 

" The earth is falling ! " he said. " I will go and alarm the 
world." 

He scampered off, and met another hare. 

" Run," he said, " run for your life ; the earth is falling ! " 

" Where is it falling ? " asked the hare. 

" I feel it, — run, run ! " 

The hare scampered after him, and they said to other hares : 

" The earth is breaking up, — run ! " 

The hares all ran and told a hundred thousand hares, which 
all ran, crying out : 

" The earth is falling, — run ! " 

The deer in the forest meadow saw them running, and threw 
up their heads, and asked : 

" What is it ? " 

And when they heard that the earth was caving in, they ran 
after the hares, a hundred thousand of them. 

The elks saw them all running. 

"What is it?" they asked. 

" The earth is caving in," said the deer, " run for your lives ! " 

Then the elks followed the hares and deer, and they all met 
the tigers. 

" What is it ? " asked the tigers. 

" The earth is going down," said the elks. " Run ! " 

Then the tigers all ran after the nervous little hares, and 



JATAKA STORY— THE ALARMED HARE 229 

they told the lions that the earth was all breaking up, as by an 
earthquake, and the lions ran after the tigers. 

The lions told the elephants that there had been a great 
earthquake, and that the earth was all breaking up and cav- 
ing in. 

The elephants trumpeted, and ran. They met the rhinoce- 
rosses at the river, and called : 

'' The earthquake, the earthquake ! Run ! " 

The rhinocerosses wallowed out of the slimy rivers, and 
waddled after the rest. 

They all ran and ran, until they had no breath left, and then 
fell over each other in a desert plain. 

In the red morning the rhinocerosses asked : 

" Who heard the earthquake ? " 

" The elephants know all about it," said the lions. 

The elephants were asked. 

" The lions know." 

But the lions said : " The tigers know." 

The tigers said : 

*^ The elks know." 

The elks said : 

*' The deer know." 

The deer said : 

" The hares know." 

The hares said : 

" The little hare knows." 

The little hare said : 

" The tree told me, and warned me to flee." 

Then the animals wondered greatly why they had all run, and 
a wise elephant said : 

'• Let us all go back to the tree." 

They all went back to the tree, a long journey, since they 
had run so far. And they found there a Bodhisatta (one who 



230 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

is becoming a Buddha by rebirth), and they asked him about 
the earthquake, but he only said : 

" I saw a mango fall, and this little hare jumped and ran." 

Then said the little hare : 

" If it were not an earthquake, it was a twig that shook, when 
the mango fell. Something stirred, — I am sure of that, — and 
it is best to run when anything stirs. One can never tell what 
is going to happen." 

Among the strange people here were Kurds from the region 
of Mt. Ararat and the Tigris. These people live in tents, and 
had brought their tents with them. 

There is but one place where the earliest people of the world 
gather — that is Nijni. One may see there the descendants of 
the paternal races of mankind. To take the hand of a Kurd 
seems like meeting an Adam or an Abraham. One now may 
sometimes meet these people on the cars. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE AMOOR — MANCHURIA, THE PROVmCE OF 
DESTINY 

Look upon the map of Asia ; you may have occasion to do so 
many times in the next twenty years. So study it now. You 
will find on the west coast an outline like New England. Look 
at the Chinese Empire as far as the great wall. What lies 
between it and Asiatic Siberia ? Mongolia and Manchuria, and 
the Desert of Gobi. 

Perhaps you know but little about this part of the world. Is 
there much to be known ? Much. From these mountain-walled 
desert lands have gone the cyclone armies that swept the world. 
The Huns who toppled Rome gathered fire here as from a single 
spark. Here were the fields of Timur, or Tamaline. Here the 
Tartar chiefs grew and gathered force until they swept down on 
China, captured Pekin, and occupied the throne as the Manchu 
dynasty. 

Mongolia ? It includes the active history of Indo-Chinese, 
the Tibetans, and Tartars — the great nomadic people of the 
world. These nomads founded the Median Empire ; they flour- 
ished before Nineveh ; they wandered. They may have been 
exiles who founded the American cities on the Pacific coast — 
we cannot tell. 

They founded China — two thousand years before the Chris- 
tian era. They were the Scythians, the Huns. Where they 
went was terror, desolations. Genges-Khan, one of their 
chiefs, conquered almost all Asia. His family held China and 
Russia. They founded the great Mogul empire at Delhi. 

231 



232 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

The empires of the Mongols broke asunder. For a time 
Turkey was the glory of the race, and afterward became the 
shame of the East. 

Their religion is Buddhism, and it embraces some five hun- 
dred millions, or almost half of the human race. 

The dissolving empires of the Mongolians now face two new 
powers — steam and electricity. Science has proved their 
sacred books untrue, and yet there is some truth in their 
teachings so far as relates to hidden powers and the transcen- 
dental will of the soul. The unseen life force is all they claim, 
and we may not limit its exercise. 

Christianity is the supreme teaching of the world, and the old 
Mongol empire must accept the highest teaching, or else it must 
fail and fall. 

The Greek cross rises over it all, the crescent pales, and the 
simple gospel of obedience to the laws of life inborn in the soul 
is the end of all. 

On the map, as I said, you will find an outline like the New 
England coast ; not only that, but like the United States along 
the Atlantic coast from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. 
You may outline Florida there. 

Our tourists approached this coast by the Amoor. Look at 
the Amoor River on the map. It was once a river of destiny ; 
it may be so again. 

Our travellers found themselves on a huge, rude boat churn- 
ing a river whose traditions are as old as Abraham. They were 
in the world of the first migrations. 

There were great ice-breaking machines on the boat in winter, 
said to be of New England invention. The summer service was 
comfortable, but everything about the river, the woods, and 
mountains seemed chill and old and strange. 

They came, after some days' journey, in which they were in 
peril of running aground, to the world's new city — Vladivostok. 



THE MAGICIAN IN FIREWORK 235 

They were now in China, without the wall. They were in 
the region between the once two empires, the mighty deserts 
out of which the conquering races came that desolated the luxu- 
rious world. 

Let us here give you a picture of the relations of Russia and 
China in the old times — the days of the mighty wall which our 
tourists were now approaching. 



THE MAGICIAN IN FIREWORK 

In 1719 an embassy was sent from Russia to the Emperor of 
China, and made the journey from St. Petersburg to Pekin. 
The ambassadors were accompanied by an English physician, 
John Bell. They bore presents, and the Emperor of China 
desired to entertain them in a way that would impress them 
with the glory of his empire. 

It was the Emperor Kamhi, who had brought to perfection the 
art of fireworks, an art which had been known in China almost 
since the discovery of gunpowder and printing, or for two thou- 
sand years. 

The Emperor Kamhi prepared to cause the heavens to blaze 
with unwonted splendor during the long series of receptions that 
awaited the embassy. 

It was the time of Peter I., Czar of all the Russias. At this 
time few foreigners passed the wall of China, and for the Chi- 
nese emperor to receive an embassy from a neighboring country 
was a matter of moment and significance. 

The Russian embassy was received in pomp. Pekin was like 
a fairy-land when it came ; feasts were spread amid hangings of 
banners and bannerets of crimson, green, and gold ; bells rang, 
gongs sounded, and wouder-working magicians filled the evenings 
with delight. Kites trailed the air ; floating dragons and men 



236 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

seated on birds. One banquet was followed by another, and the 
choicest foods and wines were served in golden dishes. 

Presents were exchanged, and those of Kamhi displayed 
wonderful art. 

But the nights of astonishment were deferred until the new 
moon of the New Year. 

Kamhi had wrought miracles in fire in the face of the heavens. 
He had studied the arts of the firework makers, and had caused 
the roof of the heavens to respond to his fancies. 

The night of the new moon of the New Year came. Pekin 
dressed for the festival of fire which was to thrill the Russian 
ambassadors. Those nights of wonder were graphically described 
by Doctor Bell. 

The festival was to be continued from the new moon to the 
full moon, when it would reach its height. 

The embassy were invited to be guests at the imperial palace 
on the 29th of January, when the moon would be at its full. 
They were to be lodged in a pavilion of a garden, on a canal. On 
the 30th the court and grandees assembled, and the emperor 
appeared in person, and ascended his throne amid the adoration 
of a glittering and awestruck assembly. 

The emperor called for the principal Russian ambassador. 

'' I hear," he said, " that in your country, when you drink to 
the czar's health, you break your glasses. I approve of the 
tribute to health, but I do not comprehend what you mean 
by the breaking of the glasses." 

It signified probably that the person of the ruler was so 
sacred that the same glasses ought not to be used twice in 
celebrating his health. 

Sports followed, Tartar wrestlers. The emperor was an old 
man and had a tender heart, and he caused the wrestlers and 
combatants to be separated when they became brutal and bloody. 

The next night came the glory of the fireworks. 



THE MAGICIAN IN FIREWORK 237 

Doctor Bell thus describes the scene in old English : 

" About five of the clock a fignal was given for beginning 
to play off the fireworks, by a rocket let fly from the gallery 
where the emperor fat; and, in the fpace of a few minutes, 
many thoufand lanthorns were lighted. Thefe lanthorns were 
made of paper of different colours, red, blue, green, and yel- 
low, and hung on pofts about six feet high, fcattered over 
all the garden, which exhibited a very pleafant profpect to the 
eye. 

" Another fignal was then given for playing off the rockets. 
They fprung upward to a prodigious height, and fell down in 
figures of ftars, difplaying a great variety of different colours. 
The rockets were accompanied with what I fhall call crackers, 
for want of a more proper name. Their explofion refembled 
the reports of many guns, fired at certain intervals, and ex- 
hibited a view of many charming colours and forms of fire. 
Thefe, with a few fireworks of different kinds, intermixed, 
continued for the fpace of three hours. 

" Oppofite to the gallery where the emperor fat was fuf- 
pended a large round veffel, about twenty feet in diameter, 
between two pofts about thirty feet high. A rocket fent from 
the gallery lighted a match hanging from the veffel, which 
immediately caufed the bottom of it to drop down with a loud 
noife. Then fell out a lattice, or grate-work, all on fire, and 
hung between the veffel and the ground, burning furioufly, in 
various colours. This continued for ten minutes, and really 
exhibited a moft- curious fight. It feems, this lattice-work was 
compofed of materials that immediately kindled, on being 
exposed to the air, for no perfon was feen near the machine. 

" This grate-work being extinguifhed, there appeared a lighted 
match, hanging from the middle of the veffel, and burning up 
to it. As foon as the fire reached the veffel, thirty fair paper 
lanthorns of various colours, dropped from it, and hung in a 



238 TBAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

ftraight line below one another, between it and the ground, 
which immediately catched fire of themfelves, and formed a 
beautiful and well-proportioned column of parti-colored light. 
After this, fell out about ten or twelve pillars of the fame form, 
but of a leffer fize ; thefe alfo took fire as foon as they dropped. 
This fcene continued till the number of one thoufand lanthorns 
fell from the veffel, which diminifhed every time, till the laft 
were very fmall. I muft confefs this prefented a delightful 
object to the fpectators. 

" I could not help being furprifed at the ingenuity of the artift, 
in crouding fuch a number of lanthorns into fo fmall and fimple 
a machine as this feemed to be ; and, at the fame time, with fo 
much order, that all of them dropped and kindled of themfelves, 
with equal regularity, as if he had let them fall from his hand ; 
for not even one of them was extinguifhed by accident, or in the 
leaft entangled by another. This concluded the firft day's 
entertainment. 

" The 31ft, in the evening, we returned to court ; where was 
opened a new fcene of fireworks, which continued, with great 
variety, till ten o'clock at night. The 1ft of February, we 
went again to court ; where the fireworks were refumed in many 
different, well-executed defigns. What pleafed me moft was a 
fmall mount, raifed in the middle of the garden, from which 
fprung a ftream of white and blue fire, in imitation of water. 
The top of the mount contained a cavity, in fhape of a large 
urn, from which the fire rofe to a prodigious height. 

" Oppofite to the gallery, where the emperor fat, were erected 
three large frames, about thirty feet high each. On one was a 
monftrous figure of a dragon ; on the fecond, a man on horfe- 
back ; and the third prefented an elephant, with a human figure 
on his back. All thefe were compofed of a deep blue fire, and 
were interwoven with vines and grapes, hanging about on all 
fides of white, red, and bine fire. 



THE MAGICIAN IN FIBEWORK 239 

" Befide thefe, there were exhibited, on this occafion, many 
other ingenious defigns of fireworks, which far furpaffed any- 
thing of the kind I ever faw, though I have been prefent at 
performances of this nature, exhibited at St. Peterfburgh, by 
the beft artifts in Europe. Befide the art difplayed in the 
contrivance and figure, thefe works furnifhed, in particular, a 
wonderful variety of moft beautiful colours, far exceeding my 
ability to defcribe. I muft confefs, they greatly outdid my 
expectations, and even common fame, which feldom leffens 
things of this nature. 

" The following day the emperor gave the ambaffador a 
private audience, and enquired how he liked the diverfions and 
fireworks. On this occafion, the emperor repeated what has 
been already obferved concerning the antiquity of illuminations 
compofed of gunpowder ; and added, that, although fireworks had 
been known in China for more than two thoufand years, he 
himfelf had made many improvements upon them, and brought 
them to their prefent perfection." 

The sights upon the shores of the Amoor revealed to the 
Barnards a new world, though Ah Hue saw in it a very 
ancient civilization. On one side of the river were Chinese 
settlements here and there, and, in all the way from Stretinsk, 
were seen groups of people belonging to the hardy Siberian 
tribes. The people of these cold countries look healthy and 
prosperous : they have character. How is it that the peasantry 
of Northern Europe, Canada, and Siberia present such a noble 
appearance as compared with the ragged peons of the palm 
lands of the tropics ? They live on the crops of the short 
seasons, hard wheat, buckwheat ; by the small profits of millet, 
flax, and furs ; and yet they dress comfortably, are robust, live 
long, and are prosperous and happy. It is the inner life that 
makes the man, and these people have virtue and an uplifting 
religious faith. 



240 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

Let US look at some of these Siberian tribes, and especially 
at the women and children. 

At the landings one meets, as at the railway stations, sellers of 
many little luxuries. One of these travelling restaurants, if we 
may so call the class, sells fried cakes of many kinds, containing 
fruits or meats. These victualers make the roads of the country 
cheerful by their wanderings, and are welcome objects by the way. 

There are to be seen the golden domes of Russian churches 
in many of the towns ; churches with jewelled lamps and 
shrines, and with music as enchanting as an imagined hymn of 
the angels. On the Chinese side of the river, or the side where 
Russia makes a concession of Chinese settlements, an occasional 
temple is seen, and among them, at Ssen-Thia-Ts'oune, the 
decaying temple of the God of War, it being an ancient military 
place. 

One of the sights upon the river which most delighted Lucy 
was the little rugged dogs that came towing boats up tributary 
streams. 

Can one row a boat against a current with one oar, and that 
without lifting the oar ? 

Yes, one may do almost anything if one know how. One 
may travel on the water without sail, oars, or rudder, if one 
will let the current bear him ; if he trust the current in the 
way he is going. 

But the Manchurian boatman travels against the current, 
holding one oar or paddle in his hand. He attaches two stout 
dogs by a long cord to his little craft, and they dig their feet 
into the shore, and tug and strain and bear him along against 
the current, while he sits in his boat, seeming to be scowing 
backward. The current rolls swift and heavy against him, he 
uses his paddle as a rudder, the boat breasts the tide, and 
the little dogs dig on, at times straining every muscle, and 
yet seeming to be happy to do the work. 



THE MAGICIAN IN FIREWORK 243 

Our tourists had now passed Siberia, and yet had not seen the 
Siberia of their imaginations. 

Siberia ! One sees in the word a picture of tyranny, injustice, 
and misery. One hears the winds blow cold at the sound of 
that word, and conjures up prison-houses in mines, chained con- 
vict miners, and dismal processions of wretches travelling far- 
ther and farther into the snow. It was so, but thanks to the 
much good that there is in the heart of the czar, the Siberia of 
old, like serfdom, has been practically abolished. 

Siberia is one and a half times larger than Europe, and is 
5,600 miles long from northeast to southwest. It in part con- 
sists of swamps, moorlands and flats, vast forests, hard hills, 
mines, and great regions of snow-baffling evergreens. To the 
north, it is frozen more than half the year, and some steppes 
have, on the average, but few huts to the square mile. 

The great districts of Tomsk and the Amoor River are very 
fertile. Here are the granaries of Northern Europe. The Trans- 
Siberian Railroad will make them more prosperous than before ; 
cities will enlarge, and the great river systems be clouded with 
steam. 

Over Mongolia, rise the Altai Mountains, and the great Lake 
Baikal covers, with its sunny expanse, a large portion of Eastern 
Siberia. 

Here are the wolfish sledge-dogs, the reindeer, the Arctic fox, 
and white bear, the sable, wolf, marten, and wild sheep. In 
the regions of almost endless winter, the dogs answer for horses, 
and make merry the sledges. 

On the Amoor the Tunguses are of Tartar origin, as are the 
Manchus of the Amoor territories, whence the reigning family 
of China is descended. 

In 1845, the left bank of the Amoor became Russian, and 
near the mouth of the river the Russians have founded a town 
named Nicholajevsk. 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

THE DEATH LAMASARY, OR THE HUMAN GOD AND 
THE "PRAYER -FLAGS" 

Ah Hue was as entertaining on the Amoor as on the palace 
train. 

It was a strange tale that Ah Hue next told, — strange, yet 
no detail of it exceeds the truth of frequent occurrences in 
Ourga, the China city of the Lama, the Mecca of Kootoota, the 
boy-god. 

" I was travelling with a caravan that was transporting tea 
into Russia, by the usual way of Ourga, Irkoutsk, and Tomsk. 
A speck of gold shone upon the horizon. The horsemen turned 
and exclaimed, ' Ourga.' The speck was the burning gold of a 
pinnacle. The horsemen dashed on, and I followed them. The 
palaces of the Holy City arose in view. Here was the supposed 
abode of a living god. Around it were spread white tents. Here 
came people from deserts, from towns, from far Manchuria, to 
look upon the features of the young Lama, the boy-god, which 
is deemed to be the greatest event that glorifies human life. 
They are pilgrims of the soul ; to see the face of the Mongolian 
god, and to die in the chambers of the Lamasary is in their view 
to be wafted away to the regions of eternal light and bliss. 

" Pilgrims come from Manchuria, nine hundred miles away, 
and cross deserts afoot and alone for hundreds of miles, to see 
the face divine, praying all the way. 

"There are two living deities of Mongol Buddhism, — the 
Lama of Tibet and the Lama of Ourga ; so Ourga, the Mongolian 
capital, is the second sacred city in the world. 

244 



THE DEATH LAMASABY 245 

" The Lama lives in the privacy of his palaces, and only on 
rare occasions is his face to he seen by the faithful. He is wor- 
shipped as a god, — the Grand Lama of Mongolia, like the Grand 
Lama of Tibet. 

" Ancient Buddhism knows no worship of God, but only the 
adoration of the saints, so Mongolian Lamaism is saint worship. 

" The trinity of doctrine in Lamarism is, (1) I take my 
refuge in Buddha. (2) I take my refuge in law. (3) I take 
my refuge among the saints. Ourga is the city of the saints. 

" The Lamas are believed to be reincarnations of Buddha, or 
the Buddha principles. The Lama Bible consists of one hundred 
books, the study of which is confined to the sacred places. 

" The temples rose before us like great shadows in the red 
sunset. The prayer-fiags waved in the air, and sickening odors 
were perceptible as the light faded ; they came from the city of 
the dead, where bodies are continually exposed to the flocks of 
birds in the air. 

" We came to the gate of the Russian consulate. Beggars 
swarmed about us. We rang the bell. A Cossack appeared, 
and we received a hospitable welcome from the consul. 

" I went out into the dusky streets before the light faded, 
where I met a hungry pilgrim, a man past middle age, and 
the most remarkable-looking human being that I ever saw. 

" He asked for food. 

" ' I have travelled a thousand miles,' he said, ' praying in all 
the deserts. I want food to strengthen me before I fall down 
before the great image.' 

" ' Why have you come ? ' I asked. 

" He answered only, ' My soul.' 

" His famished face had a radiance in it, — a soul light, — 
like a lamp in a vase of alabaster. 

" I gave him money ; I could not give him food. The air was 
full of bells, and I returned to the consulate. 



246 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" As the city cooled, the odor in the air became dreadful. 

" ' It comes,' said the consul, ' from the city of the dead ; 
there have been many pilgrims here of late ; they come to die, 
and they perish in the sacred chambers, after they have pros- 
trated themselves before the great image of Buddha.' 

" Ourga contains the colossal image of the world. It stands 
in a dim temple, and rises like a mountain over the shadows of 
the place of adoration. Its hands are the size of a man's body, 
or larger, and its face is most beautiful and serene. 

" In the morning the air seemed purer. I went to visit the 
temple of the Great Buddha. 

" The image of the god filled me with wonder. How was it 
made ? What human art fashioned it ? 

" The huge temple had no windows. It was a cavern of 
shadows. 

" A few oil-lamps made the colossus visible. It was hung 
about with prayer-flags of crimson and gold. The dark walls 
were full of gilt or golden idols, protected by glass. 

" At the foot of the great idol was the throne of the boy-god. 

" Priests came in to relight the lamps. As the light bright- 
ened, we looked up, and high in air shone his Serenity, but the 
face of the Beautiful was in shadow. 

" Ourga is a city of silence, save when the bells ring, and the 
gongs sound, and the trumpets peal for service. 

" The bells were ringing, as I passed out into the morning 
street. 

" I met the pilgrim there whom I had seen in the twilight. 

" He rushed past me, an excited glow on* his face. He was 
going into the temple to prostrate himself before the colossal 
image. 

" Birds were wheeling in the air. They formed a cloud over 
a spot a little distance from the temple. Now and then some 
of them seemed to drop down from the sky. 



THE DEATH LAMASABY 247 

" I resolved to go to the Place of the Dead, — the Golgotha. 
It was just outside of the city. So I took a view of the Lama's 
palace, where flutter prayer-flags, and lit a cigar for safety 
against the pestilential vapors, and went to the hillside, where 
the dead were carried to become the food of the dogs and the 
vultures. 

" The sight was the most horrible that can fill the imagina- 
tion. It was a place of human bones and of decaying corpses. 
The pilgrims who fall sick here are taken to the Death Lamasary, 
and are not doctored, but prepared for death. As soon as they 
die, their bodies are taken to this open field, and left to the 
beasts and the birds. 

" The field of the dead haunted me. I went to the palace of 
the Lama the next morning, and returned to the field. Another 
morning I went to it again, when I beheld a sight that still 
haunts my soul. 

" The poor pilgrim, whom I had twice met, had died in the 
silent chambers, and had been robed in a blue frock and taken 
to the field. The birds were gathering about him, and one of 
them had already broken his face. He was bleeding. He was 
not dead. 

" The birds were alighting above the field on other partly 
eaten bodies. The air seemed putrid. My first impulse was to 
hasten away, but no, I had helped this poor pilgrim of the 
deserts who had made a long and perilous journey for the sake 
of his soul, and I must do so again. The fact that he had made 
the journey for his soul's sake, showed me that he had moral 
worth, — that there was something noble, almost divine, in him. 

" I would keep the birds away from his body until help 
arrived. 

" I am not a smoker, but I again lighted a cigar and breathed 
the fumes to avoid the odor of the decaying bodies. 

" Help came at last. A procession of priests were bringing 



248 TBAVELLEB TALES OF CHINA 

another body to the field. I could see them coming from the 
mid-desert city of hovels and palaces, with prayer-flags waving 
in the air. 

" The body of the pilgrim at last moved — it turned. 

" I called to it : 

u 4 Pilgrim ! ' 

" Again : 

" ' Friend ! Pilgrim of the desert ! ' 

" He opened his eyes. 

" ' You — ' he said, ' this same world. I heard your voice — I 
hoped that this world was the other. Now I must arise, and go 
on my journey again. I am still a pilgrim here, — but I have 
prayed to Buddha, and my morning will come.' 

" He arose and followed me into the city. 

" There was a great sound of whirring wheels as we entered 
the city, for it was a saint's day. The wheels were prayers. 
The Mongolians had set in motion the wheels that contained 
the printed prayers that they would have answered. Every one 
has prayer- wheels there, and many carry them about with them. 

" The Lama was in the palace, and not at his summer-house 
in the hills, where he lives much of the year. He was going to 
the temple that day to sit on the throne at the feet of Buddha, 
but he was on his way through a secret passage. I tried to 
enter the temple, but in vain. 

" And here was a common man just like all other men, of 
whom superstition had made a god. Bells rang, gongs sounded, 
prayer-wheels whirled, prayer-banners waved in the tainted air. 
Men fell prostrate in the dark temple before the Lama ; it was 
all a delusion, and yet — 

" It was not a delusion that the poor pilgrim of the desert 
had been willing to surrender every worldly comfort, to thirst, 
hunger in the deserts, to leave friends, and all pursuits of gold 
and a name, to suffer every imaginable pain for the sake of the 



THE DEATH LAMASARY 249 

purification of his soul. His moral life rose over every other 
consideration : to become a worthy ancestor was his highest 
ambition, and to gain what was noble, pure, and true was the 
hope of his soul. He was ignorant, but a Washington, a Lincoln, 
a Gladstone, a San Martin, or the Admirable Crichton may 
have had no higher thought or more sincere worth. From his 
point of view he did his utmost to be worthy of immortality." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE NEW PAETS OF THE WOELD 

Look again on the map at the beginning of this volume, a 
map that will remind you of the East Atlantic coast, with the 
Amoor for the St. Lawrence and Corea for Florida. 

You will see there : 

Alexandrevsk, 

Vladivostok, 

Yuene-Sane. 

Look again on old maps : you will not find them. 

These ports are on the way to Pekin, around ancient Corea. 

Yet in the daily papers you will see these names frequently. 
Out of the world, a new world seems to be rising there. 

Our tourists resolved to go to Pekin by way of these new 
ports. Thence they would go to Tonquin, and return to Hong- 
kong. 

Mr. Barnard wished to return to America from Hong Kong, 
by the way of some Pacific port and Panama, so as to complete 
what would be some day, either by way of the Nicaragua or 
Panama Canal, the new way around the world. He also desired 
to visit the Atlantic coast of South America, and to see the 
rapidly building South American railroad from Guiaquil to 
Quito, over the foot-hills of Chimborazo, where Church painted 
the " Heart of the Andes." The beginning of travel in new 
ways, to see new things, opened as it were a new world to him. 

Would you learn how the party travelled on the lordly Amour, 
or Amoor, and have a clear view of the manner of travel ? Yes, 

250 



TILE NEW PARTS OE THE WORLD 253 

— well, pictures can do for you what the pen cannot do 
as well. 

Founded in 1850, Nicholaievesk is situated on the Amoor. 
There may be seen the Ghiliak fishermen, whose boats in full 
sail look like huge butterflies. 

The Ghiliaks are a rude, simple race. The bear is their god. 
They raise young bears in all their villages. On their fete-days 
they take one of these bears in a cage and carry it from door to 
door, as a god about to be sacrificed, and to be sent as a 
messenger to their departed friends in the unseen world. 

The people pray to the bear-god. They tell him what they 
would have him say to their departed friends after he is sacri- 
ficed. They give him messages to bear to the dead. 

After the procession is over they fall upon him and kill him. 
Then they eat the sacrifice, and adore the remains. A Chinese 
or Japanese print curiously illustrates this story of the rude 
fishermen of the Amoor. We reproduce it on a subsequent page. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE COREA GINSENG 

CoREA, or " the Corea," is the peninsula of mystery, but is also 
the land of missions. She has been inhospitable to travellers, 
and has forbidden the schemes of explorers. Catholic mission- 
aries have found their way into the country, and remained there, 
but such have written little about it for the public eye. We owe 
to a single book by Pere Ch. Pallet, " The History of the English 
in Corea," the popular view of the hermit nation. 

The word Corea seems to mean the calm, or " the morning 
calm," and is pronounced Co-rl by the natives. 

It is a land of mountains. Peaks lean everywhere over the 
" morning calm " of the sea and land. It is also a land of 
forests and streams, and its climate has the. strenuous chill 
of Northern China. 

There rice and wheat grow together, and flowers of beautiful 
hues abound, most of which are scentless. Tobacco and cotton 
were introduced there from Japan, and all the fruits of northern 
climates grow freely. 

It is a land of ginseng (panox), the herb or root of Oriental 
superstition, which is supposed to have magic power over all 
diseases, and to possess the gift of immortal life. 

This gift must be effective in some unseen way, and that after 
death, if the claim were true, for no one who has used it, how- 
ever freely, has continued to live beyond the allotted age. 

The root of ginseng takes the form of the human body, like 
the wooden image of a man. This form is supposed to have 

254 



THE CORE A GINSENG 255 

suggested its magical properties. It grows in Manchuria, and 
when the product became exhausted in China, the northern 
countries and even American forests were searched for it, as we 
have illustrated, and it was literally worth its weight in gold. 
A delicate root has been known to bring £17, or nearly ninety 
dollars, in the Chinese market. 

This root, as we have already shown, opened the gates of 
Canton to New England ships. 

We should know more about this product which has had such 
an important influence in historic events. 

"The ginseng," says a Manchurian commissioner of customs, 
" loves moisture and the densest of forests which cling to the 
slopes of the hills. It nestles in recesses which the rays of 
the sun have never penetrated, and which are as pathless now as 
in the days of the Golden Tartars. 

" The Manchurian ginseng consists of a stem, from which the 
leaves spring, of a centre root (trunk), and of two roots branch- 
ing off from the centre root (arms). The stem resembles the 
head and neck of a man, and the side roots, arms ; the main 
root represents the body, and a fork, which the main root fre- 
quently forms, legs. 

" The value of the root is increased by its age, and the age 
is determined by rings. 

" The collection of ginseng used to be in the hands of some 
forty merchants, who obtained concessions from the Tartars to 
gather it. The merchants employed outlaws to gather the herb, 
which became scarce." 

Corea is a land of tigers, — the cat-tiger, small, but cunning 
and destructive. This animal pursued the ginseng collectors in 
former times. 

The climate is hot in summer. 

The Coreans came from the Mongol race. They are short, 
compact, strong, and apathetic, and are brave when roused to 



256 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

war. For two thousand years the Coreans have been conspicu- 
ous in the Chinese armies. 

The Corean women are slaves in their own houses. In girl- 
hood, their husbands are selected for them, without any choice 
of their own. The husband and wife do not see each other's 
faces before the veil of the bride is lifted. The bride does not 
talk to her husband until after marriage. The Corean mothers 
are very fond of their children, and find the chief delight of 
their life in the nursery. They adopt the children of others, 
even when they have many of their own. They are natural 
kindergartners, and a charm indeed is the home garden in the 
peninsular kingdom. 

The Coreans worship their ancestors in robes of white. Con- 
fucianism is the state religion, influenced by Buddhism. 

It is a land of tiled roofs, small but picturesque brick houses, 
and earthen floors. 

The officials dress in white silk. Many people wear horse- 
hair hats. All wear long hair. 

Trade as a rule is conducted by barter. There is no consid- 
erable coinage. The Coreans are a home people in all their 
desires and habits. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE HOUSE SPIKITS OF COEEA 

The real religion of Corea is Spiritualism. We do not mean 
any modern form of Spiritualism, but the simple belief that 
good people draw around them good spirits, and evil people evil 
ones, and that many, or most, of the acts of life are influenced 
by good or evil spirits, and suggestions secretly made to the 
soul by spirits. 

The Buddhism of Corea has yielded to this universal belief. 
The Coreans believe that a universe of invisible spirits sur- 
rounds them. These are called daemons, but the word does not 
imply demons, but good spirits as well as bad. 

You will not wonder that Ah Hue listened to the story of the 
" House on Rumney Marsh " with intense interest. We cannot 
say whether or not there is any truth in Doctor Wintlehouse's 
theory that places are affected by the kind of people that inhabit 
them, but such is the universal belief in Corea. A house of 
bad associations there would be torn down. 

The belief of a world peopled by spirits who can produce sick- 
ness and suggest evil has caused a strange kind of doctors to 
flourish in the hermit land, who are called Exorcists. These 
doctors claim to have inner sight, to be able to control good 
spirits and bad, and to compel them to depart from those whom 
they are tormenting. A book of Isabella Bird Bishop contains 
chapters devoted to this strange superstition, and the doctors to 
which it has given rise. The belief in such spiritual influences 
and their control is known as Shamanism. 



258 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

Shamanism is reputed to be more than four thousand years 
old ; it is studied as a science, and it has its guilds and govern- 
ment directions. 

It is considered a good fortune to be born blind in Corea. The 
blind child is supposed to possess clear spiritual sight, and to be 
able to baffle the wiles of evil spirits. 

These occult doctors are called Pan-Sa. There is a Pan-Sa 
guild in Sione that is maintained by the government. 

The Shamans select dwelling-places, houses, places for 
graves. They heal the sick, whose sickness is supposed to 
be caused by evil spirits, propitiate revengeful spirits, and 
avert the influence of spirits that cause crimes, suicides, and 
abnormal acts. The fees for this service are high. It is said 
that Corea spends some two millions and a half dollars annually 
for this relief, which is simply an influence on the perverted 
imagination. 

In all cases of insanity and nervous disease, the Pan-Sa doc- 
tor is called. The latter brings with him a rod, and this rod 
shakes in answer to his questions in regard to the case. A good 
spirit is summoned to drive out the evil one, who is believed to 
be possessing the patient. The struggle is often thought to be 
long and severe. In some cases, the evil spirit is compelled 
to enter a bottle, and is bottled up and cast away. Woe be to 
him who sets him free again. 

The missionaries in Sione have done something toward break- 
ing the force of the great superstition. They are preparing the 
way for science, and a more enlightened conception of things 
that arise from natural causes. 

Shamanism prevails on the Amoor and in Manchuria, as well 
as in the peninsula of Corea and its fantastic capital. 

We look upon the victims of such superstitions with pity, but 
how do they regard us ? 

Let us quote from one of their school text-books : 



THE HOUSE SPIRITS OF CORE A 261 

" How grand and glorious is the Empire of China. The 
grandest men in the world have all come from her. 

" Europe is too far away from the centre of things. Hence 
her people appear like beasts and birds, and her languages are 
like the chipperings of the fowls of the air." 

The cities and towns of both Corea and China present two 
street or court scenes that awaken the curiosity of the visitor. 
One is the doctor, with magic remedies like ginseng, who draws 
around him a credulous crowd ; and the other the magician, who 
consults the " sticks of fate." The latter sticks, like the tipping 
table, answer his questions by occult signs, which he is supposed 
to understand. 



CHAPTER XXIT. 

THE CAPITAL OF THE CELESTIAL EMPIEE — 
MYSTEEIES 

Nankin, the ancient capital of China, declined under political 
changes, and Pekin, the North City, became the capital in 1421. 
Then arose Tien-tsin, the port of Pekin. 

Pekin is a city of fantastic fancies, upbuilt by superstition, 
and the queerest place in all the world. The Sacred City is 
here, into which it is death to enter. 

The outer walls are some sixty feet high and nearly as thick ; 
piles of vegetation to the eye, but crumbling and decaying. 
They enclose a million or more inhabitants, and there dwell the 
embassies of various nations, and there are English, American, 
and Continental missions. 

Our travellers came to the Holy City at sunset. There was 
heard a great sounding of gongs at the guard-houses, and un- 
earthly cries rent the air when one of the nine gates of the city, 
that they were about to enter, closed. 

Mr. Barnard protested against being kept outside of the walls 
during the night. 

" Did you not hear the gongs ? " said the guard. 

Night came on, and the city grew luminous. The stars came 
out, and there was silence at last, and under the moon the great 
shadow of a wall. 

They entered the city in the morning after sunrise. It looked 
to them like a great fair ; there were crimson and gold every- 
where, dust, dirt, fantastic balconies, and waving banners. 

262 



THE CAPITAL OF THE CELESTIAL EMPIRE 263 

Mr. Barnard wished to hold his nose, for the air was full of 
bad smells, and there were also sights and scenes to which he 
would gladly have closed his eyes. 

Clouds of dust arose. Mr. Barnard complained of it to Ah Hue. 

" It is a disinfectant," said Ah Hue ; " it makes the people 
healthy." 

They were taken to a hotel where were English-speaking 
servants. They then went to the old place of English embassy. 
The buildings were like a palace on the Imperial Canal. In- 
deed, it was once a palace. The entrance was gorgeous in the 
extreme, — airy pavilions, carved roofs and cornices, pillars of 
crimson and gold. The rooms within had an atmosphere of 
a world of fables, — dimly lighted apartments of Oriental 
luxuries, inscriptions, vases, odors of flowers. They afterward 
went to the American legation. 

They found all the streets much alike. 

" What is to be seen in the Forbidden City ? " asked practical 
Charles of an English-speaking servant at the hotel. 

" The brother of the Sun and Moon." 

" How does he look ? " 

" Just like me, if I had a mandarin's dress on." 

"Is that all?" 

" All, just folks, bobbing about, or lying around in silk and 
gold." 

" Why is it closed against foreigners ? " 

" So that they may not know that there is nothing there." 

There is nothing in a mystery in these flowery lands, and yet 
there the very air is mystery. 

Their first mystery was the sight of a Chinese funeral. They 
went out and found the streets full of people — " was there ever 
such a crowd ? " 

Mandarins in palanquins, or sedan-chairs ; soldiers on horse- 
back in gay colors, looking like flying men ; Tartar ladies under 



264 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

silk canopies, with bells; camels, and men from the desert; 
water-carriers and sellers of fruit, chow-chow, and ice, all 
covered with dust. 

There was a ringing of bells, a clashing of cymbals, and a 
great noise everywhere, when suddenly, over all there came 
a hush. 

A funeral procession was approaching, that of a mandarin, 
or some public functionary. It was led by mourners in white, 
or in white robes gray with dust. The catafalque, or hearse, 
approached, surrounded by ghostly forms strewing flowers and 
burning incense. 

The procession stopped. Large white sheets were spread 
upon the ground, mourners fell down on their faces on them, 
and beat their heads on the ground. 

How helpless they looked, thus beating the earth, and what a 
parable of life it seemed ! 

The dead mandarin's horse was led before the coffin, and a 
wax image of the mandarin himself was borne beside it. 

The coffin was of immense size. 

The '^ followers " followed, and the wax image seemed to 
lead them to the place of burial. There were many prostrations 
along the way, the mourners falling down on the white cloths 
spread for them upon the earth, and beating their heads on the 
ground. 

The Chinese do not bury dead bodies in the earth ; they set 
down the coffin, and throw a covering of earth over it, and 
so it remains on the top of the ground to become a mound of 
flowers. The earth is renewed if it fall away. The dead are 
blanketed with earth, which turns into flowers ; the burial-place, 
or sleeping-place, is one of mounds, not graves. The sun, the 
stars, the night, and all seem near the sleeper. The burial 
impresses some travellers as less barbarous than in civilized 
countries. 



THE WONDER OF PEKIN 265 

There is nothing in the Sacred City, as has of late been 
found ; but the savage old empress, the young emperor's aunt, 
was held as a sacred being when she resided there. No one 
might look upon her, whose relatives were the sun and moon 
and all the hosts of the sky. She was suspected of the gravest 
crimes that belong to mortal weakness, but that did not seem to 
dim her celestial splendor. When she gave a reception to min- 
isters of state, — the '' foreign barbarians," — she stood behind 
a screen. Vulgar eyes might not behold her who shone with 
the sun and moon. 

But one day a stupendous event happened ; it should, accord- 
ing to traditions, have clouded the earth. She became greatly 
excited in talking over possibly some court gossip when standing 
behind the sacred screen. 

In her excitement, she forgot that she was the sister of the 
planets, and in bobbing up and down to enforce her opinions, 
she showed the top of her head above the screen. 

That was a sight that this world had never witnessed before. 
It made a profound impression on the court and emperor. But 
the sun and moon, unheeding, passed on just the same. 



THE WONDER OF PEKIN — THE SONG OF TEA, 
THE TARTAR FAIR, AND WHISTLING PIGEONS 

Pekin, the Celestial City, the abode of the Son of Heaven, 
contains in its lively population and sleepy palaces, eight hun- 
dred thousand or more beggars. It has a king of beggars, and 
many of these beggars are thieves. 

A queer old story used to be related of the manner of housing 
these beggars. As they were accustomed to steal bed-clothing, 
a great covering, one could not call it a coverlet, was prepared 
for them, an immense bedspread. This sea of cloth was pro- 



266 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

vided with slits for the noses of the sleepers. How comfortable 
it must have been ! But then rats, the scavenger birds, the 
bugs ; a beggar in those days must have regarded his nose as a 
very precious article ! 

Of course Pekin has an old-clothes market full of inquisitive 
and curious people, and silk markets where fabrics shine in the 
purified morning air. Here, too, are pawn-shops full of unac- 
countable things. 

There are two Pekins, the Chinese and the Tartar ; we might 
say three Pekins, as the Purple City of the Son of Heaven is a 
city by itself; or four Pekins, as a Christian city is growing 
up within the ancient walls, a city of schools and chapels, and 
high cult. The Methodist Mission has schools for Western 
education, an institution which has become a power in China. 
The medical Christian missions are also a progressive power. 
These are all Western windows open to the light. 

The Tartar City is remarkable for its fairs. What a crowd 
gathers at the Tartar fairs, and what things for sale do they find 
in this great world market ! 

There may be found porcelains and fans and banners on which 
are printed, or wrought, or dyed, or engraved, the famous 
emperor-poet Kienlung's Praise of Tea : 



The leaves of mei-hoa are lovely, 
Sweetly scented those of fo-choea, 
But place the tripod upon the fire, 
The gentle and slow-burning fire, 
A tripod of ancient form, 
A tripod of ancient colors, 
Then fill the urn with water, 
With water of melted snows. 
Let the water gently seethe 
Until it whiten a fish, 
Until it would redden a crab. 



THE WONDER OF FEKIN 267 

Pour tlie water into a cup, 

A cup of the earth of yae, 

Pour it upon the tender leaves, 

The tea-tree's sacred leaves, 

Let it rest until mists arise, 

When the mists shall turn to clouds, 

When the clouds shall float away, 

Then sip the fragrant tea. 

Sip the tea, oh, happy moments, 

It will drive away disquietude, 

The five causes of unrest. 

You may joy to taste its flower. 

You may feel its hidden powder, 

But in song, or voice of music 

What you feel and find your joy 

You never can express. 

No chord or harp or lyre 

Can voice tranquilly the praise of tea ! " 

The best of the popular fairs is held near the great Confucian 
Temple. Here may be seen the beflowered gentry in embroidered 
satins, and crowds of fakirs as well. Here is a kind of bird 
market. The bird lovers carry their birds on perches, on open 
hoops or rings, and on poles. 

And here offered for sale are some of the queerest things ever 
seen in any market — fighting crickets, gamey little things, to 
be taken away in cages. 

Here comes the quack doctor with his ginseng, his magic 
herbs, his occult and wonder-working pills. He has dragon 
blood in precious parcels. Here jujube paste may be found in 
perfection. 

Here may be found the pigeon whistle, which belongs to fairy- 
land. It has been hung upon the bird, and as the bird flies 
against the air, it sings like a nightingale. This toy surpasses 
all the other toys of the world — hang one on a raven, and how 
he would fly singing away, to his own great astonishment, and 



268 TBAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

the surprise of all the other singing birds of the air. The kites 
and the crakes, as multiform as they are, cannot surpass the 
pigeons who carry with them these seolean harps which are 
useful as well as magic-working — they are carriers, and bear 
aerial music with their messages, which are sometimes matters 
of business, but sometimes those of the heart. 

The sky of Pekin in fair time is full of w^onders. Kites and 
musical pigeons by day, and fire-dragons and firework surprises 
by night. There is no city like Pekin in all the world. 



CHAPTER XXIII. \ 

THE DOWAGER — A QUEEN "AN" INDEED 

The Empress Dowager of China is, in a worldly-wise sense, 
the shrewdest woman in Europe, or the one " man in China," as 
she has been called. Full of cunning, craft, and vanity, she 
over-rode all opposition to her sovereignty ; she placed herself 
on the Dragon Throne, and although China has a legitimate 
empress, Queen Tsze Hsi An holds the keys of the royal palaces. 
The Sister of the Sun and Moon has no thought of stepping 
down and out — not she. When the guardianship of the baby 
Emperor Tunychik was left to a board of regents, an imperial 
decree raised his mother to the position of empress, and the two 
empresses entered Pekin together, the royal boy resting in his 
own mother's arms. The two empresses reigned together during 
the little emperor's minority. 

The young heir was married in great splendor in 1872, at the 
age of seventeen. 

The young emperor died mysteriously, and his wife Ahluta 
followed him to the royal abode of their ancestors as mysteri- 
ously, and Kwangsa, a four-year-old boy, was declared emperor 
by the two empresses, especially by "An," the superfluous 
dowager. 

She claimed that she was not only his aunt, but his step- 
mother, although the emperor had died long before this adopted 
son was born. That did not matter to the dowager. She found 
a way to hold the Dragon Throne. 

The Queen Anne of England was a woman, and, like Victoria, 



270 



TBAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 



held in high esteem, but all the religions of China hold women 
as inferior. 

But the gods did not matter, " An '' sat on the Dragon Throne 
the imperial despot, despite the laws of the celestial kingdom 
above or below. She struck off the heads of the princes who 
opposed her ; ignorant of affairs of state, she bowed the mighty 
empire to her will, and compelled armies to carry out her 
capricious fancies. 

Her Audacity scattered her enemies like dust, prince and priest. 




GHILIAK FISHING -BOATS 



When the young emperor had reached the age of sixteen, her 
Audacity, his aunt and " stepmother," set herself to choose for 
him a wife. He had been brought up in slavery to the etiquette 
of the Purple City and the Temple of Heaven. He seems to 
have fallen in love, and to have desired to choose him a wife, 
but what were his choice and affections ? 

And this is how the imperial " An " chose a wife for him. 

She summoned the beautiful girls of the noble Manchurian 
families before her. 

First three hundred beauties. 



THE DOWAGER 271 

She reduced these candidates to thirty. 

Then to ten. 

She studied the case two years. 

She chose Yehonola. 

Who was Yehonola ? 

The daughter of the empress regent's own brother. 

This kept things in the family as of old. The emperor seems 
to have been indifferent to his bride, thinking all the while of 
another, but he was marched forward to the altar all the same, 
amid great splendor of lanterns, and strewing of flowers. 

The rejected manuscripts were sent home with gifts of silk 
and gold, and the old dowager still retained her power ! 

Some one has said that " Fate in China is under government 
control." 

But it is not. Machiavelli taught the Italian court how to 
deceive the nations. He succeeded for a time. But how sunk 
Italy ? Spain pursued a like policy, and robbed the Incas in the 
name of the Church. But how fell Spain ? There is no resist- 
ing moral gravitation. 

The empress dowager prepared to celebrate her sixtieth 
birthday, and to make her festival the most splendid in all the 
world. But something happened — it was with Japan. She 
took her first lesson in the moral -law, that no one can escape 
one's gravitation. 

The emperor aspired to be a reformer. She, too, now pre- 
tended to become a reformer. She would ride in railways and 
establish schools and hold drawing-rooms. Against her the 
Tartar blood of China arose. There came a reaction that shook 
the throne. The wily woman now changed her views, and led 
the reaction against the nation. 

The nobility demanded that the emperor should set aside the 
dowager. But she set him aside, " the two hundred and fortieth 
Son of Heaven," as a recent writer has said. 



272 TBAVELLEE TALES OF CHINA 

The court contained one wonderful man — a philosopher, 
Kang Ya Wei ; of him we have a story to tell. He was a pro- 
gressive, a friend of the young emperor who sent word to him, 
" Flee for your life." He came to America. 



THE MAD ELEPHANT — IN THE YELLOW CITY 

The Yellow City of Pekin, or the Holy City within the 
Tartar city, has a circuit of some nine miles, and the Chinese 
hold it to be the most sacred place on earth. It is called the 
City of the Son of Heaven, the Forbidden City. Here live 
the imperial family, and here no trade is allowed. Green 
gardens of pavilions and yellow-tiled roofs may be seen from 
afar glimmering in the sun, or buried in shadows, but no foreign 
foot may pollute these prayer streets, or enter the halls of 
vermilion and gold. On the hills of the sacred city are red 
pavilions and towers, built by Ming emperors. The boy emperor 
of this dynasty hanged himself there when the Manchu general 
conquered the city of Pekin. The Manchu invader, on ascending 
the throne, punished the acacia-tree on which the last monarch 
was hanged. He chained up the tree, and how the tree felt 
about it we are not informed ; that was a subject of occult life. 

Temples, pagodas, kiosks, dagobas, monasteries, with many 
bells, fill the sacred grounds. Here is the Imperial Library, 
the pride of China. There is the Palace of the Earth's Repose, 
where the lovely dowager " An " passed her time for the forty 
years of her three usurpations. The Temple of the Silkworms- 
is here, and the Pavilion of Purple Light. 

Within the dragon-tiled walls of this city all is seclusion. Here 
lives or lived the heaven-created emperor, and eight thousand 
people of mystery live with him. Here pass the lamas in the 
holy shadows of the Tranquil Palace of Heaven. 



THE MAD ELEPHANT — IN THE YELLOW CITY 273 

And here is published the Pekin G-azette, a yellow journal, 
indeed, which is the oldest paper in the world. Think what 
news that paper has published, not of this world only, but of 
the celestial regions and mysteries as well ! 

The great news of the City of Seclusion used to be the 
movement of the emperor. He was usually but a stupid man 
of low, animal passions and supreme selfishness, but when he 
moved all was sacred silence. 

His proposed movements were announced in the Pekin 
Gazette, with the streets through which he would pass. Every 
door and window at the hour must be closed. To look upon 
him with common eyes was a crime. The streets were strewn 
with new sand for the feet of his bearers. Every one heard in 
awe the coming of the procession, but must not see it — he was 
the Son of Heaven. 

There was an old elephant in the imperial stables who had 
become impatient at all of these solemn and stately ceremonies 
about nothing. It made him mad to be harnessed for the grand 
procession of silence. The tinsel and gold wearied him, the 
banners and dragons, and all. 

He was an '' occult " elephant, but had degenerated with age, 
and he set up his will to make it lively in the periods of 
fuss over the movements of the Son of Heaven. He did not 
seem to so much as know that the weak boy emperors were 
the Sons of Heaven. He was a bad elephant as well as a 
mad one. He was probably a tribute elephant from Cochin 
China. 

It was a day of a grand procession — yellow satin gowns 
filled the sacred streets. The doors were shut — the windows. 
People listened behind curtains to the coming of the priests of 
Buddha, and the passing of the Son of Heaven. 

The mad elephant was harnessed with trappings of dignity 
and splendor. 



274 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

His driver commanded him to go slow, but he did not like to 
go slow. He wished to be free. 

" Back, slow, slow," said the sacred driver. 

But the elephant drove forward, and the people beheld his 
irreverence with awe, but they kept their own places. They 
would be protected by the occult powers of the Son of Heaven. 

But little did the elephant care for the Son of Heaven. A 
mule and a vehicle stood in his way, and he seized the former 
with his trunk and set him aside in a doorway, cart and all. 

The people stared at such irreverence, and a poor woman held 
up her hands in horror. 

The mad elephant seized her and lifted her up in the air, and 
this on the sacred day, and the Son of Heaven, who would cause 
the earth to tremble, going to the Palace of Heaven borne by 
sacred feet under golden pavilions. 

What would the mad elephant do with the woman thus lifted 
in air ? 

He tossed her over a building into a yard. 

The procession moved rapidly then, and when the elephant 
was taken to his stables he was deemed a fit subject for some 
new incarnation, for which he must bide his time. 

The poor woman whom he had tossed over the tiled roofs 
into the sacred garden must have been slow to have entered the 
procession with a sacred elephant again. It was a case of 
lese-majesty. 

The trade city of Pekin is a gay bazaar, — gorgeous with 
streamers, ornamental balconies, and displays of goods. They 
are like a vast fair. They throng. . The air flutters with 
banners like wings. 

Horses, mules, sedan-chairs, wheelbarrows with sails, people 
with advertisements of their trade or calling on their garments, 
barbers who shave at the corners or in courts, people who cook 
foods on portable stoves, people who cry their wares, jugglers, 



THE MAD ELEPHANT— IN THE YELLOW CITY 275 

story-tellers, tinkers, cobblers, — a murmur of voices in many 
keys, — quack doctors, all surge through the restless, babbling, 
glimmering sea of the Pekin streets. 

Amid the crowds come the Tartar soldiers with whips. A 
mandarin in state is approaching ; every one must make way for 
him. How gorgeous he looks in his sedan-chair ! His suite 
follow him, and before the pompous cortege the people press 
together like a wall. 

If the crowd becomes disorderly, the Tartar soldiers rush 
down upon them with bamboo whips. All ordinary people are 
liable to get whipped in China, and sometimes the innocent 
with the guilty. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE WONDERFUL TREES OF CHINA 

The blue, sunny air of China is a fairy-land of trees, and an 
account of them reads like a fable. There is found the marvel 
of vegetation, the banyan-tree, or pagoda-tree — a little forest 
in itself that can shelter a small army, whose branches are drawn 
down to the mother earth, and spring up trees which in turn 
multiply themselves, until the arches and cloisters and tangled 
alleyways seem like a vast monastery. The birds love the 
umbrageous shadows, which become alive with their cheerful 
voices. 

There is the milk-tree and the varnish-tree, the juice of each 
of which is used in gilding, and the mulberry, or silk-tree, which 
yields the means of a vast wealth. 

One of the most curious of the vegetable productions of the 
country is the tallow- tree, which produces the fat from which 
candles are made. The camphor-laurel, which is as the oak in 
size, is almost as wonderful. The camphor is found in the 
trunk, as in a treasure-chest. 

The sycamore produces the finest paper, and the indigo plant 
the finest dyes. 

The mandarin orange is the delight of China. It is said that 
it is worth a voyage to China to eat one of these oranges. It is 
now being cultivated in Florida, so one may not have to go so 
far to obtain it. The dwarf oranges of China will grow finely 
in Florida under protection. 

The orange-trees of China surpass those of Europe or Asia ; 
the plantations of these trees are little paradises, in which the 

276 



THE WONDERFUL TREES OF CHINA 277 

odors of glistening green leaves and white flowers are over- 
powering. 

The beautiful trees of China have one common enemy, the 
locust. On some sunny day a cloud will arise from the earth 
and cast a shadow. No one seems to know where it was 
formed, but it rises and falls in showers of vegetable destroyers. 
These locusts devour whole provinces ; everything green falls 
before them. When they have devoured all, they die, and then 
comes the pestilence. The emperor goes into the Temple of 
Heaven and supplicates the gods for his dying people. 

The living ornaments of the pleasure-grounds and gardens are 
the dwarfed trees. These China gardens are imitated in other 
lands, but, like kites and fireworks and porcelain wares, they 
find their perfection in China. The Chinese delight in grotesque 
and fantastic vegetation. 

How is this distorting done ? The dwarf trees are produced 
by covering the branches of a great tree with mould and matting, 
and causing the fibres of the tree to shoot into the mould. They 
are then set into the earth. 

The trees are made to represent curious forms, as of living 
animals, by imprisoning branches in bamboo, and thus causing 
them to grow as desired. New forms of flowers are thus 
produced, and new colors, as japonicas of mazarine blue. 

The hand-birds and cool shadows of trees are among the 
charms of China. The Chinese carry their pet birds with them 
attached by a silken cord. The bird may fly to the shoulder or 
to the head of his keeper, but when he mounts into the air he 
finds himself arrested by the silken cord, and struggles upward 
in vain. 

An old garden in China, with its fantastic vegetation and 
grotesque images, seems like a haunted place. 

Ah Hue continued his Buddhist stories as before, as he had 
occasion for moral lessons. 



278 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 



THE ROYAL ELEPHANT — A JATAKA STORY 

There was a certain king who had an elephant of great size, 
but of gentle disposition. There was such a look of mildness 
and good will in his face that they called him the Girl-faced 
Elephant. He was the delight of the royal stables, and people 
liked to feed him, to play with his trunk, and to caress him like 
a pet. 

Peasant people came to visit him, fakirs, women, and chil- 
dren, and the sun shone into his stalls, and the world went 
well. 

There was a band of bandits who roamed over the forests 
and deserts near to the royal stables. They wished to have a 
secret place to consult together, and the leader said : 

" Let us meet nights and make our plans in the saddle-rooms 
back of the sacred stall where the royal elephant is kept. No 
one goes there in the early part of the night, and the place is 
near the treasure-houses." 

So they met night after night in the saddle-room of the royal 
stable, and the elephant listened to their plans. 

He heard the savage tones of their voices, their oaths, and 
fierce resolutions, their plans of cunning, and his own disposition 
began to change. He caught the suggestion, and it grew in 
him, for when the robbers stole away, they left a spirit of evil 
influence in the air, in the timber in the room. For rooms, the 
legends say, are infected by bad people, and long retain the 
influence of evil suggestion. 

The elephant said : 

" My disposition is changing. Why should I be mild and 
gentle and playful ? Why should I not be bold like a robber ? " 

So one day, when a school had come to see him, he rushed 
out of his stable, tossed the poor teacher into the air, struck 



THE ROYAL ELEPHANT— A JATAKA STORY 279 

down the scholars, and chased a poor woman on a crutch, and 
caused her to fall down in a fit. 

His keepers could not come near him to saddle him. 

" He has become a rogue elephant," said they, " and we 
cannot control him, because he is so large. To let him roam at 
large is to endanger the lives of the people. What is to be 
done ? " 

They went to the king. 

" The great elephant," they said, " has become a rogue 
elephant ; we cannot control him ; what is to be done ?" 

" But," said the king, " how has this been brought about ? He 
was a gentle beast as long as gentle peoplo were about him. 
There have been evil people in the stables, and they have 
affected him by their evil suggestions conveyed by the tones of 
their voices. For voices are the bodies of evil spirits, and these 
spirits possess animals as well as men." 

" We have seen no evil spirits hovering around the stables," 
said the keepers. 

" Watch the stables at night," said the king. 

They watched the stables and saw the thieves come and go, 
and heard their evil talk and plans, and saw how their spirit 
affected the elephant by suggestion, and they went and told the 
king. 

" How is he to be brought back to his old disposition ? " they 
asked the king. 

" I will give the room over to a brotherhood of monks for 
their evening meditations," said the king. " Go ; have the 
room fitted up for that purpose. They will fill the air with 
good influences, and leave a gentle spirit of good will in the 
walls of the stables, and the elephant's disposition will 
change." 

The elephant listened to the tones of the monks, and he 
caught the spirit of gentleness and good will again, and he 



280 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

became the same favorite as of old as long as the monks caused 
their own spirit to haunt the stables. 
And the master of the monks said : 

" By listening to robbers' talk 
The elephant went out to kill ; 
By listening to the monks' sweet tones 
He found the goodness he had lost." 

For the spirit of a man haunts the walls and wood of a 
building in which it has dwelt, and leaves suggestions. 

Mrs. Barnard, who had studied the benevolent movements in 
the large cities along the journey eastward, here gave herself to 
the missionary problem. As she saw the slaughters that had 
been wrought on innocent people, — the world's best heart and 
life, — she would come home with streaming eyes. 

Let us present to you a story of these dark days. It was 
published in the Easter number of the Boston Congregationalist 
in 1901, and was furnished that paper by the wife of a Chinese 
convert. It has the eloquence of simplicity. It is here used 
by permission. 



HOW A CHRISTIAN CHINESE FAMILY KEPT THE 
FAITH — THE THRILLING STORY OF ESCAPE 
FROM THE BOXERS, BY A PARTICIPANT IN 

THE EVENTS 

The Boxers were coming. We were not afraid, though we felt, 
anxious on account of our four children. If we should be killed 
and they left, who would care for them ? June 13th, I was 
alone in the house with the children. All day the neighbors had 
been talking of the terrible things that were to happen to the 
Christians. I heard of the burning of the Methodist Episcopal 



HOW A CHRISTIAN FAMILY KEPT THE FAITH 281 

Mission and the London Mission — heard the shouting on the 
street of " kill, kill, kill." About eight o'clock I could see 
the flames of the American Board chapel and hear the noise 
made by the multitude gathered about the place. My husband 
did not come, and I thought he had been killed. I took the 
children up-stairs, and then sat down and waited. They were 
crying for their father. While trying to comfort them, a friend 
came quietly up-stairs and told me not to make any noise, but to 
come out on the street, where my husband was waiting for me. 
My little two-year-old girl was asleep, and I thought I would 
first go and see what was wanted, and then come back for her. 

We went out in the street, and there in a dark corner 
was my husband. His first words were : " Where is our 
precious baby, can it be you have left her?" I said no, I 
wanted to see him first, and then if we were going to try to 
escape I would go back for her. The young man who had 
called me out said : " You must not one of you go back into 
that court — I will get the baby. You stay here in this corner 
— but don't speak — if the people in the court know you are 
trying to get away, they will call out." So he went in, got the 
baby, and left the lamp burning so they would think we were 
still there. 

We made our way along in the dark to a near court where a 
Christian family were living. From this court Mr. Wau climbed 
to the top of a temple belonging to a rich man living in a court 
at the front. I stood below, and he whispered down to me what 
he saw and heard. We heard the church bell at the American 
Board chapel fall, and a general shouting of voices. Afterward 
a man went by, calling out if there are any followers of the 
foreign devils about, they had better escape at once, as a house 
to house search is to be made by. the Boxers before midnight. 
Every follower will be killed. From the temple roof my hus- 
band saw them go to our house three times. 



282 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

At last he said, it is no use to think we can escape them, but 
we will try. Don't let the children make a bit of noise. I will 
carry them one by one to the roof here, then we can talk and 
plan. He took the children up, and one by one carried them 
along the wall, then got on to the roof. I told my little girl not 
to cry, that papa would be very careful. She said, " Yes," and 
was perfectly still. I do not know how I managed to climb to 
the top of that, eight-foot wall, to walk along the narrow top and 
then crawl up the roof of the temple. All the time it seemed 
as if I was helped from behind. A big tree overshadowed the 
roof, and we hid under the branches, watching the burning of 
the chapel and homes of the friends we loved. All over the city 
were fires, and the screaming of the mob was terrible. It was a 
horrible night. At last we climbed into the tree and reached 
the ground — bruised and torn. We hid in a little empty room 
back of the temple. 

At last, about light, one of the servants saw us and told his 
master. We all six of us got down on our knees and entreated 
them to hide us for a few days, but they said no, there was to 
be a house to house search in the city, and if they sheltered 
Christians then they would suffer. I borrowed a needle and 
thread, sewed up the rents in our garments ; they gave the chil- 
dren some bread, and we went out. My husband walked ahead 
carrying the baby, and I followed after with the other three 
children. Soon we met a band of soldiers ; some did not notice 
us; others said: "Here are some. Let's kill them." Others 
said, "Let them go; can you not see it is one family? Let 
them off this time." Even with the knives drawn I did not 
tremble. 

They went on, and we made our way first to the home of my 
sister-in-law. They were very kind to us, and said we will all 
die together. We had been there but a short time when their 
landlord came and said we must go. Our relatives entreated 



HOW A CHBISTIAN FAMILY KEPT THE FAITH 283 

for us and with us, but no, ^'go" was the word. They hired a 
cart for us, and we left the city by the east side gate. We went 
to a cemetery and hid there till dark. We heard people on the 
road saying that all the foreigners had been killed, and when we 
reached the quiet spot of the dead it seemed as if our hearts 
would break. With one voice we lifted up our hearts and cried 
till it seemed as though our eyes were gone. 

After dark we made our way to some relatives living a mile 
from the cemetery. At first they welcomed us, but some one 
came and told them the Boxers were coming for us. Then they 
said we must go. My husband told them to hide us in their 
brush-pile, and if the Boxers came they would set fire to it. I 
told them we were not afraid of death ; what we feared was that 
we could not all die together. At last they let us go into an 
empty room at the back of the yard. The children went to 
sleep at once. So did their father, but my heart was so sad I 
could not sleep. About midnight the man of the family came 
and said we must get up and go on. They did not dare have us 
stay any longer. 

We went out into the cold and darkness. My oldest daughter 
lost her shoes and went in her stocking feet. We all had blisters 
on our feet, as we were not used to walking. We went through 
a village and, though we did not talk, and walked very quietly, 
the dogs commenced to bark. Some one called out, " Who goes 
there?" We said, "Travellers." "I know who you are, you 
are followers of devils, and are out scattering medicine," said 
the man who had hailed us. He then called to his neighbors, 
and we turned off into the fields and hurried along. We went 
to a village where we had some distant relatives, but found no 
open door. We walked for some distance till we came to a large 
family cemetery. The keeper was a kind man and lived there 
all alone. He told us to come in, and said he would do his best, 
but the owner of the place was a Boxer, and it was not safe for 



284 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

Christians to stay. He got us some supper. It was very poor 
and dry. Our lips were all cracked from fever and thirst, and I 
asked him to give us some porridge. 

We had a quiet night, but in the morning the keeper said it 
would not do for us to stay. Then my husband became dis- 
couraged. He said the best and only thing for us to do is to go 
and give ourselves to the Boxers. We will only ask them to 
please kill the children first, and then you and I will die 
together. The suffering will not last over two hours, and then 
all sorrow will be over. I agreed to this. He then called the 
three oldest children, Weu Ping, Paul, and Peter, and said to 
them : 

" My children, your father would suffer for you if he could, 
but he cannot. The Boxers will ask you if you are Christians, 
if you say no they will let you off, if you say yes, then they will 
kill you ; but that only means suffering for a little, and then we 
will be with Jesus." The children, one after the other, said, " I 
will say I am a Christian, I love Jesus, I am not afraid to die." 

It did not seem as though we could walk any more. The 
keeper said at last he would see if he could get the cart of a 
friend. He went out, and we all had prayer together. After 
a time the cart came, and we started for Pekin. We did not 
meet any Boxers, but saw them in the distance. We went to 
one of the church-member's homes, only to find it in ruins, then 
to a place we owned, but had rented. Our tenants not only 
would not take us in, but refused to pay us money they owed 
us. We drove from street to street. At last I saw my husband 
was nearly desperate, and I whispered to him : " God has let us 
come all this road, and we have not met Boxers ; we must not 
seek death ; perhaps he means us to live." 

The carter then got to talking with some people, and learned 
that the Methodist Episcopal Mission had not been attacked, so 
with great joy we made our way across the city, and were 




A GHJXIAK FALl DAY 



THE TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA 287 

received with open arms. The children jumped up and down in 
the cart and said : " It is almost as nice as getting to heaven." 
It did seem so to us after the anxious hours. During the siege 
our dear little girl died, and heaven seems very near to us now. 



THE TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA 

Mr. Barnard had gone east to study the tea districts of China, 
with the advantage of an English-speaking guide, who had 
travelled in his youth up the far inland rivers, and had seen the 
tea-gardens of the interior of the country. He and his family 
had been studying the Chinese language, and now they were 
ready for a visit to the green tea fields. 

They prepared to go on a mandarin boat to the Oopack 
country, from which is exported English breakfast tea. They 
sailed from Honkow. 

It was a land of canals, of hongs, and of coolies. 

They visited a hong in the district. It was situated in the 
midst of numerous tea plantations, and to it the tea-pickers 
were bringing baskets of tea. 

The plantations were covered with bushy tea-shrubs, some of 
which seemed to be snowed over with little white flowers. It 
was April, at the first picking of the tea. 

The plantations were filled with work-people, gathering the 
tea into bags. The tea is so gathered, then assorted or picked 
over, then dried in the sun, after being withered in pans over 
charcoal fires. 

The hong was an immense roof, supported by airy columns. 
Not only was tea dried under it, but tea-boxes were manu- 
factured there. 

The climate of these regions was much like the Southern 
States, and the soil like that of American southern districts. 



288 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

On their return to Honkow, Mr. Barnard talked much with 
some English tea-merchants, about the growing of teas in other 
countries. Mr. Barnard came to the conclusion that it might 
be well to try the experiment of tea-raising in Florida, in the 
land where the orange-trees had failed. 

Inland China was full of orange-trees. The climate was 
subject to cool seasons, and yet the trees flourished. He 
arranged to have some of this hardy stock transported. 

He found that the United States government was interested in 
transporting tea-plants for experimental stations in the Carolinas 
and elsewhere. 

The boys became greatly interested in the conveying of plants 
and fruits to the experimental stations of agriculture in America. 
They wrote letters to the principals of several agricultural col- 
leges. In this way their education as would-be importers grew. 
They saw what they could do in their business in new ways. 

There is a world of plants, another of fruits, and they saw 
how these worlds were in themselves one. 

" To know how to select and protect crops," said Charles, " is 
the secret of success." 

" You are right," said Mr. Barnard. ^' That is one of the 
things which we have come here to learn. He who makes a 
Japanese plum grow in Florida is a benefactor. So is he who 
transplants the hardy bush orange from the hills of China to 
Ocala and Tampa. So was he who developed the grapefruit, 
and made a life-giving bowl of it, as it were, on the breakfast 
table." 

The celestials do not dwarf large trees, but enlarge them, so 
that a single branch to which the strength of the root has been 
forced will stretch out some three hundred feet. This has been 
little followed in America. 

There was one thing that revealed to the boys, as they 
thought, an Ajuerican opportunity, the kumquat, or bush 



THE TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA 289 

oranges, found in many gardens in China. They could be grown 
in Florida and easily protected. They would ship easily, and 
the demand for them in northern markets would be greater 
than the supply. Their fruit is hardly larger than the English 
walnut ; is delicious, like the citras deliciosa, and makes a 
fine dish for the table. 

The fruits in the temperate regions of China could nearly all 
be cultivated in the Southern States of America. 



CHAPTEK XXV. 

THE PEAEL KIVEK AND CANTON — CHINESE JUG- 
GLERS—CONFUCIUS 

Eighty miles up the Pearl River lies Canton, walled as it 
were with lifted sails. 

The river is full of boats everywhere. It is said that there 
are some eighty thousand of them ; many of these are floating 
houses and constitute river towns. Beautiful indeed are their 
sails in the sunset. The waters then seem to be as full of 
voices as of waves. 

Coolies' calls, scolding women, stevedores shouting at their 
work, sounds near and far away, tom-tomings, ting-tingings, 
sunset bells, guns, and echoes make the Pearl River like a great 
fair in the evening hours. 

Cantonese guides wait the traveller's landing. 

One enters the streets of the " thousand beatitudes," and if 
service from calico-clad Celestials with bare feet were wanted, 
one would indeed be blest. 

Silks, teas, tobacco, ramie, porcelains, junks, and curios all lie 
spread out before the traveller ; he sees " beckoning boards " 
everywhere, and becomes bewildered. 

If genius needed genii, here is a temple of five hundred of the 
latter, whither one might go to sharpen his wits. 

The things that he cannot find here are few ; here the delica- 
tessen shops offer him dried rats and live ones in cages. Here 
he finds Chinese oranges, kumquats, loquats, limes. 

In a square he may enter a temple called the Hall of Horrors, 
in which pictures of unfaithful people are to be seen in the 

290 



CHINESE JUGGLERS 291 

process of being boiled in oil, pounded in mortars, quartered 
and disjointed. This is a popular gathering-place ; here beggars 
swarm, and all kinds of deformities are to be seen. 

There is filth everywhere, mider all the flowing awnings and 
signs, as well as in dismal alleys. 

As on the river, the population seems to float about like a sea. 
There are said to be some three million people here, almost a 
London, quite a Greater New York. 

The disgusting odors equal the filth. It is well the city lies 
beside the river. 

Canton is a city of street shows and jugglers ; to the traveller 
of leisure it is like a great circus or fair. The serious man of 
business little sees these things ; the occupied eye sees only what 
it wishes to see. 

Mr. Charles Sirr, in his great work on " China and the 
Chinese," devotes a chapter to the extraordinary feats of the 
Chinese necromancers. He Avitnessed the feats of the " king 
of jugglers." He thus describes these Oriental wonder- 
workings : 

" The juggler, magician, necromancer, or conjurer, — for we 
know not which of these appellations to bestow upon the in- 
dividual, — advanced into the centre of the room, accompanied 
by a compradore, and commenced an oration in Chinese, which 
was rendered into Anglo-Chinese by our compradore, who acted 
upon this occasion as our interpreter. The harangue was to the 
following effect : ' That he never before had exhibited the mys- 
teries of his art to any, save natives of China, and mandarins 
of the highest rank ; but, as our compradore was his particular 
friend, and had promised him faithfully that the Viceroy of 
Canton should not be made cognizant of his having exhibited 
the wonders of his peculiar vocation before any but the favored 
sons of the Celestial Empire, he would display such extra- 
ordinary feats as would undoubtedly convince us that he was 



292 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

no common professor of the occult science ; for as Taou-Kwang 
was the greatest potentate in the whole miiverse, all other 
emperors and monarchs being his inferiors, so was he (the 
speaker) the chief and head of all professors of his art; all 
others of his brethren or compeers being as inferior to him as 
the aforesaid emperors and potentates were to Taou-Kwang, the 
Emperor of the Celestial Empire, and ruler of the whole world.' 
This oratorical display was delivered with an amazing show of 
pomposity, being regarded by us for as much as it was worth ; 
and we fully determined to keep our previously formed resolu- 
tion, of watching the performer most narrowly and closely. 

" The compradore now retired, leaving the emperor of all the 
jugglers, necromancers, conjurors, and magicians, standing solus 
in the centre of the apartment. Our friend now commenced 
operations, by placing his box at his side ; he then stripped off 
his jacket, leaving himself nude from the waist upwards, with 
the exception of a white cloth which was twisted about his 
loins ; he then took his long tail of plaited hair, and twined it 
around his head. 

" Being thus prepared, by denuding himself of his jacket, to 
prove there was nought concealed in his sleeves, he opened his 
box, and took therefrom an ordinary earthenware bowl or basin, 
of about eighteen inches in diameter, closed the lid of the box, 
leaving it in the middle of the room, and completely exposed to 
our view ; he then walked around the room, basin in hand, 
presenting it successively to each guest for inspection, the whole 
of the time muttering in Chinese, which we afterward learned 
was a species of incantation. All assembled were perfectly 
satisfied that the basin was an ordinary one, and empty. 

" The conjurer now placed the bowl on the floor, about five feet 
from the box, untwisted the cloth from about his loins, and 
threw it over the basin, spreading it out smoothly, and contin- 
uing his mumbling during the operation. 




GHILIAKS SACKIIICING THE BEAR 



CHINESE JUGGLERS 295 

" The magic cloth was about a yard and a half long by one 
yard wide ; before three-quarters of a minute had elapsed the 
juggler raised the cloth from the basin, exposing the vessel to 
our view, when, lo, and behold ! to our astonishment, the basin 
was filled with limpid water, and a fish of three or four inches 
in length was swimming about in it ! He then took up the 
bowl, handing it to each spectator, as he had previously done 
when the basin was empty, and we satisfied ourselves that there 
was no ocular deception, that the water was veritable water, and 
the fish a living one. 

"How this was accomplished, we leave it to those who are 
learned in necromatic arts to solve ; but this is certain, there 
was no false bottom or lining to the vessel, and it was impos- 
sible to have changed the basin, or to have put anything into 
it, as the performer did not approach it from the time of placing 
it on the floor until the cloth had been withdrawn by him, and we 
had seen the limpid water in it. 

" After we had sufficiently satisfied ourselves by minutely 
examining the contents of the basin, the necromancer replaced 
it in the box, taking therefrom a green porcelain flower-pot 
filled with mould ; the pot was near upon twelve inches in 
height and eighteen in diameter. Holding the flower-pot in 
one hand, and what appeared to be an ordinary seed in the 
other, the conjurer handed them around for inspection, after 
the previous fashion ; he then made a cavity in the mould, 
placing the seed in it, covering it carefully with the earth ; he 
placed the flower-pot on the ground, where the bowl had pre- 
viously rested, covered it in like manner with the cloth, and 
recommenced his muttering, which occupied about ten minutes ; 
he then withdrew the cloth, and we beheld a young and tender 
plant in the flower-pot, about two inches above the mould ; this 
specimen of magic vegetation was of a delicate, bright green 
color, with the leaves folded about the stem, one within the 



296 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

other, and apparently a healthy plant, having all that peculiar 
freshness which is apparent when a plant sprouts from its 
parent earth ; but to what botanical genus this magical speci- 
men appertained we are not prepared to determine. This was 
handed around by the enchanter and examined by all, with the 
same feelings and expressions of surprise, but with no less care 
and accuracy, than the water and the fish which had preceded. 

" The juggler again replaced the flower-pot on the spot which 
it had previously occupied, and recommenced his incantations, 
which continued for about twenty minutes ; during this period 
we observed the cloth gradually rising in a conical form over 
the spot where it covered the flower-pot until it had risen about 
a foot and a half. When the cloth was again withdrawn, and 
to our increased amazement, we beheld the tender plant grown 
into a small shrub, regularly formed, clothed with verdure, and 
having its branches covered with buds and leaves ; and again 
the same examination was resumed, and we were as fully con- 
vinced of the shrub being a bona fide one, and of the impossibility 
of deception, as we had been of the truth and accuracy of that 
which we had seen on the two former occasions. Replacing^ 
recovering^ remuttering were all severally renewed^ and after the 
lapse of half an hour, the cloth was once more removed^ and 
need we say that the amazement of the spectators was consider- 
ably augmented by discovering that the shrub was now clothed 
with blossoms and flowers, in appearance resembling those of 
the China aster. 

" ' Most wonderful — astounding — extraordinary — astonish- 
ing — beyond belief — scarcely to be credited — surely our eyes 
deceive us — are we dreaming — is it magic — or what ' — were 
some of the ejaculations which escaped from those present. 

" We now came to the conclusion that nought more extraor- 
dinary could be exhibited, and we imagined that the show was 
terminated, when our friend the magician recalled the compra- 



CHINESE JUGGLERS 297 

dore, and through him requested us to resume our seats, as he 
had something further to produce, by which he intended to prove 
his right and title to the imperial dignity which he assumed 
over his compeers ; at the same time he intimated that our 
patience would be slightly taxed, as time would be required to 
bring the forthcoming spectacle to completion ; we hastened 
to comply with this request by reseating ourselves. 

" Again the casket of wonders, in the form of the aforesaid 
teakwood box, was called into requisition, and the lid having 
been raised, our wonder-worker took therefrom a common 
earthenware plate, of a round form, with blue and white figures 
depicted thereon, and about two feet in diameter ; a pound or 
more of uncooked rice was put on the plate and handed about 
as previously described ; we took the platter, examining it more 
narrowly than any of the former articles, resolved this time 
there should he no mistake^ for as the conjurer had promised that 
the wonder now to be worked was to be more supernatural than 
anything we had yet witnessed, we resolved, if possible, to be 
very sharjp^ and not to be done ; we handled the rice, which 
there could be no mistake about, it being indeed ' la veritable ' 
(as Jean Maria Farina writes ; by the way, how many veritable 
Farinas are there?), and unboiled also. 

" It must be borne in mind that during the whole period, 
although the necromancer could see the box, it was closed, 
standing at a distance from him, and he never approached it 
during the operations, after the various articles had been taken 
from it ; so that it was perfectly impracticable that anything 
could have been abstracted from the box after it had been 
originally closed. 

''The conjurer now put the plate of rice in the centre of 
the room, covering it with a cloth, and squatting down after the 
manner of these pagans (for be it known to the uninitiated that 
the attitude of the Asiatics more frequently resembles that of 



298 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

a monkey crouched than that of a human being seated, as their 
nether end rests upon, or balances over their heels, and when a 
Chinaman's long tail is stretched on the ground, the resemblance 
is nearly perfect), he varied the performance by putting his 
hand under the cloth, scrupulously keeping his arms covered to 
the elbows, and commenced divers manipulations, vehemently, 
energetically, and loudly muttering his incantations. It has 
just been suggested to us by a mischievous imp, who jogged our 
elbow, that the manipulations in which the conjurer was indulg- 
ing might possibly have been of a mesmeric character ; be this 
as it may, the manipulations continued for the space of half an 
hour, our necromancer never budging from the spot, or varying 
the elegant attitude which he had first assumed. We observed 
sundry movements under the cloth at divers times, and in 
various places ; it appeared to be raised from the ground until 
the whole presented an appearance not unlike the uneven 
surface and undulations of the model of a hilly country, the 
three sides which were removed from the magician resting on 
the floor. 

" At the expiration of the half -hour, the magician arose and 
removed the cloth, walking around, and, carefully gathering it 
up at the four corners, which being thus raised, discovered to 
our astonished gaze, arranged in symmetrical order, six dishes 
or plates of various sizes, although similar to that which had 
been previously handed around for inspection ; these plates were 
filled with sundry cooked edibles peculiar to the country, and 
amongst them was a platter full of boiled rioe, but where the 
dish of unboiled rice had vanished to, or from whence came 
the six dishes, or how they came there amply filled with ready- 
cooked food, it passed human ken to explain ! 

" Neither is it conceivable how the juggler could have arranged 
these six dishes, without moving from one spot, as those dishes 
which were farthest from him, when the cloth was removed, were 



CHINESE JUGGLERS 299 

considerably beyond the reach of his arm ; but certes ! it cannot 
be denied that he could, with equal facility, arrange the order 
of the dishes, as he could have caused to appear, or have pro- 
duced, the six descriptions of variously prepared edibles, in as 
many dishes, from one solitary platter of unboiled rice. 

" Again were exclamations of wonder and astonishment heard 
to issue from the mouths of all those who were present. Again 
did we conclude that the spectacle had been brought to a close, 
but again were we requested to resume our seats, and again did 
we comply with the solicitation. The conjurer recovered the 
viands with his magic cloth, which, to our visual organ, appeared 
to be nothing more or less than two pieces of calico sewn 
together; reseating himself in his former elegant attitude, he 
recommenced his ineantic jabberings, repeating his manipula- 
tions in the manner above described. After the lapse of some 
time, we observed the cloth gradually rising, rising, rising, and 
again rising in the centre, until it assumed a form somewhat 
conical, the apex of which was removed about two feet or 
upward from the floor. 

" During the whole of this rising or ascending process, the 
manipulator renaained without removing from the spot where he 
had originally squatted, but he now assumed the erect posture 
of the human form divine, and again, and for the last time, he 
raised the magic web of cloth, when, wonder upon wonders ! 
there were the six dishes, which twenty or thirty minutes pre- 
viously we had seen arranged flat and symmetrically upon the 
floor, now piled one upon the other, in regular order, commenc- 
ing with the largest at the bottom, each dish in ascending order 
being of diminished size, until the smallest crowned the top, the 
food remaining in the dishes, forming a new melange or pyramid, 
composed of alternate layers of earthenware and viands. 

" * Well,' said a countryman of ours, who was present, ' if this 
does not hate Bannagher ! and sure ye know who he hate^ — ■ 



300 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

wasn't it Ould Nick himself ! ' Alas ! poor ! for shortly 

after, Death, the presiding genius of Hong- kong, claimed him as 
a victim, and there his body rests, in the burial-ground on the 
hill, with the dark red earth piled on his coffin, far from Erin's 
green isle, and those he loved so well. ' Alas ! poor Yorick ! he 
was a fellow of infinite mirth and merriment.' Ah, well ! it will 
not do to indulge in these melancholy reminiscences ; so on with 
our task. 

" With breathless astonishment, we gazed upon this necro- 
mancer, half believing that it was not quite impossible that, 
upon close inspection, we might discover the cloven hoofs, horns, 
tail, and other peculiarities appertaining to his Satanic Majesty ; 
true, there was a tail, but that was of hair ; and being twined 
round his head it could not very conveniently or appropriately 
be termed a dorsal termination. During the whole period of the 
performance, the necromancer preserved the most imperturbable 
gravity, whilst we unsophisticated mortals were lost in very 
amazement at the wonders we had been the witnesses of; but 
he, good man, treated all that he did, seemingly, as if they had 
been matters of common daily occurrence ; which possibly they 
might have been, or were with him. 

" Amongst our English exclamations of wonderment, it should 
not be forgotten that there were mingled, in due proportion, the 
yi-yaws and other expressions indicative of similar feelings 
on the part of the head domestics and their friends, who had 
crowded round the doors and windows, to satisfy their (not very 
unnatural) curiosity ; for we, although not at all times disposed 
to be good-natured, on this occasion, for very obvious reasons, 
followed laudably the course pursued by a certain mitey 
minister., namely, closing our eyes to avoid seeing what we 
felt we should have great difficulty in remedying. The emperor 
of all the conjurers, and we must fully acquiesce in his right to 
assume that title, now took his leave with a chin-ehin, meaning, 



4 



THE PERFORMANCE OF A NATIVE JUGGLER 303 

in good honest English, farewell ; his coolie removing the teak- 
wood box, and some of our own domestics carrying out the 
flowering shrub, in all its pristine beauty, and pyramid of viands ; 
of the latter of which we have no doubt they partook in com- 
pany with our friend the emperor, washing the edibles down with 
sundry cups of their favorite beverage, sam-shoo.'^^ 

In Smith's " Exploratory Visit to China," we read the following 
interesting account of a juggler, which we quote, as being a more 
wonderful performance and illusion than any we saw or have 
described. 



THE PERFORMANCE OF A NATIVE JUGGLER 

" The juggler, after haranguing the crowd with much anima- 
tion, as is usual with actors, proceeded to one part of the crowd, 
and took thence a child, apparently about five or six years of 
age, who, with struggling reluctance, was led into the centre 
of the circle. The man then, wdth impassioned gestures, vio- 
lently threw the child on a w^ooden stool, and placing him on his 
back, flourished over him a large knife ; the child all the time 
sobbing and crying as if from fright. Two or three older men 
from the crowd approached with earnest remonstrance against 
the threatened deed of violence. 

" For a time he desisted, but soon after returning to the child, 
who was still uttering most pitiable cries, he placed him with 
his back upwards, and notwithstanding the violent protests of 
the seniors, he suddenly dashed the knife into the back of the 
child's neck, which it appeared to enter till it had almost divided it 
from the head, the blood meanwhile flowing copiously from the 
wound, streaming to the ground, and over the hands of the man. 
The man then arose, leaving the knife firmly fixed in the child's 



304 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

neck. The struggles of the child grew more and more feeble, 
and at last altogether ceased. Copper cash was now thrown 
liberally into the ring, for the benefit of the principal actors. 
They were collected by the assistants, all of them viewing the 
influx of the coins with great delight, and bowing continually to 
the spectators, and reiterating the words, Te Seay^ many thanks. 
After a time, the man proceeded toward the corpse, pronounced 
a few words, took away the knife, and called aloud to the child ; 
soon there appeared the signs of returning animation. The stiff- 
ness of death gradually relaxed, and at last the child stood up 
among the eager crowd, who closed around him, and bountifully 
rewarded him with cash. The performance was one which 
evidently excited delight in the bystanders, who, by their con- 
tinued shouts, showed their approbation of the acting." 

Mrs. Barnard, who had taken a great interest in the " sand 
pens" of Boston, and visited the German kinderplatz in towns 
on the way, no sooner entered China than she began to inquire 
about missionary kindergartens. She found them. The Ameri- 
can missionaries had seen what she so clearly saw ; they had 
opened such schools in the large stations. 

She visited one of these schools, and afterward addressed a 
company of English and American teachers. She said to them : 

" I come from America ; I am travelling as a pupil, trying to 
learn something wherever I go. Had I influence in work like 
yours, I would put the Asian missions into the kindergarten 
school. Kindergartens would become churches, colleges, life." 

The school that she visited abounded with stories. Some of 
these were as charming as those used in the Froebel schools 
of Germany and Switzerland. 

The Chinese cities were full of poverty and beggars. 

The street scenes of Canton were full of picturesque life. 
The street railway had not yet supplanted the sedan-chair and 



i 



THE PERFORMANCE OF A NATIVE JUGGLER 307 

wheelbarrow. The show-rooms of the lantern merchant, the 
dry-goods shops, the itinerant barber who shaves his customers 
on the street, the travelling bread-carts, the kite- flyers in the 
fields and open places, all hold the eye of the visitor, and tempt 
him to use the camera. 

Our tourist visited many porcelain shops, and made purchases 
of dishes for home use and souvenirs. Among the features of 
the ware shops were earthen jars, which are much used in 
China for water among the poor people. 

Among their visits at Canton was one to a Chinese lady, with 
bound feet. This lady greatly interested Mrs. Barnard and 
Lucy, for she could speak English imperfectly, and had become 
a member of a humane missionary society for the prevention of 
the binding of children's feet. 

The missionary influence is making itself felt in freeing China 
from the custom of deforming the feet. The missionary seems 
destined to set Chinese women free from the superstition. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
OPIUM — THE MONSTEE COVERLET 

Charles H. Eden, who published a very interesting popular 
book on China, some twenty years ago, devotes a part of a chap- 
ter to beggars, the king of the beggars, and to the temptations 
that lead to beggary in China. In this interesting chapter he, 
in very careful language, pictures the weak side of Chinese life. 

He says, at first quoting Abbe Hue : " In the northern 
provinces, especially in the environs of the Great Wall, you may 
sometimes meet, during the intense cold of winter, men running 
about in a state of complete nudity, having been driven pitilessly 
from the gaming-houses where they had lost their all. They 
rush about in all directions like madmen to try to save them- 
selves from being frozen, or crouch down against the chimneys, 
which, in those countries, are carried along the walls of the 
houses, on a level with the ground. 

" They turn first one side toward the warmth, then the other, 
whilst their gambling companions, far from trying to help them, 
look on with ferocious and malignant hilarity. The horrible 
spectacle seldom lasts long, for the cold soon seizes the unfortu- 
nate creatures, and they fall down and die. The gamblers then 
return to their table, and begin to play again with the most per- 
fect composure. Such facts as these will appear fabulous to 
many persons, but having resided several years in the north of 
China, we can testify to their perfect authenticity. 

" The Chinese also have a game called tsei-mei, which consists 
in guessing the number of figures held out by each player, and 



OPIUM— THE MONSTER COVERLET 



311 



much resembles the Italian morra ; the loser has to furnish a 
cup of brandy. They also enjoy cock-fighting, as well as com- 
bats between crickets and grasshoppers, on all of which money 
is staked and won or lost. 

" The fatal passion for gambling inherent in the Chinese is 
not the only cause of their misery. Another may be found in 
their love of debauchery. The thin coating of varnish which 








PLAYING DAN - HO 



covers Chinese society hides a most profound corruption, a per- 
version of manners and morals which exceeds all we have read 
of in ancient history. Drunkenness, as we understand the term, 
is among the least of these vices, although it exists to a con- 
siderable extent. Centuries ago grape wine was prohibited, and 
all the vines destroyed by order of the reigning emperor. The 
Manchu dynasty repealed this edict, and the vine is now culti- 
vated for the table, though wine is not made from it. It is, 



312 TBAVELLEB TALES OF CHINA 

however, a matter of very little difference, for they extract both 
wine and brandy from rice and millet, strong liquors which pro- 
duce terrible drunkenness. 

" Alcoholic drink may be obtained at the tea-houses and 
restaurants, which are as numerous as the public-houses in Eng- 
land. There are many degrees of comfort and elegance in these 
establishments, which, as with us, are suited to the requirements 
of all classes. The tea-houses may be easily recognized by a 
recess placed at the end of the hall, furnished with huge kettles, 
teapots, furnaces, stoves, and cauldrons six feet in height. Above 
the recess generally stands a time-keeper consisting of a joss- 
stick or long perfumed match, marked off at equal distances. 
This slowly smoulders, and, as it shortens, indicates the hours, 
thus literally fulfilling the expression ' to consume time.' 

" In many places the tea-houses are in boats, and the traveller 
sees dark and filthy dens, where haggard men, lying on dirty 
mats, smoke opium, but more generally the opium-houses are in 
obscure streets in the towns. All kinds of people congregate in 
these wretched places, and whilst smoking amuse themselves by 
looking at dissolving views of sacred subjects, or more commonly 
of indecent and disgusting ones. Opium is smoked in a differ- 
ent manner from tobacco, the pipe consisting of a tube resem- 
bling a German flute in size and thickness. 

" At one end of it is fitted a bowl, which is pierced with a 
hole communicating with the hollow of the stem. The opium, 
which is in the form of a black paste, is prepared for smoking 
by placing a little ball the size of a pea on a fine needle, and 
heating it over a lamp until it swells and acquires a certain con- 
sistence. It is then moulded into a conical form and placed in the 
bowl. The smoker, holding it to the flame of a lamp, takes three 
or four deep inspirations, ejecting the vapor through his nostrils. 
These few puffs exhaust the opium in the bowl, and the pipe has 
to be replenished, which makes the business very tedious. 



i 



OPIUM— THE MOySTEE COVERLET 315 

« Opium smokers usually lie on one side or the other when 
indulging in the habit, and the wealthy have their pipes replen- 
ished for them. The man who once gives way to this most 
pernicious of all habits is lost. His eyes become sunken and 
vacant, his hands tremble, his form betrays the symptoms of 
premature decrepitude, and his intellectual faculties decay. 
Nothing can stop him; he becomes insensible to everything; 
neither poverty nor hunger can stimulate him to exertion, and 
he perishes like the beasts of the field. Those who supply the 
Chinese with this deadly poison have much to answer for. 

" It is easy to account for the existence of a vast amount of 
pauperism amongst a people such as the Chinese, and it is an 
evil of such gigantic magnitude that the government is utterly 
baffled in all its endeavors to cope with it. In every town the 
number of mendicants is enormous ; at the corners of the streets 
and in every public place are seen crowds of miserable wretches, 
exposing their deformities, their wounds, and their dislocated 
limbs to excite the commiseration of the passers-by. If these 
relieve them, it is not from pity, but simply to release them- 
selves from further importunity. Numbers of these wretched 
beings perish daily of starvation. They have no homes, but 
erect miserable huts outside the pagodas and other large build- 
ings, made of any scraps of linen and matting they can pick up 
in the streets. 

" The Chinese beggars form regular companies for the system- 
atic plunder of the rich. Each member brings to the society 
some real or supposed infirmity, and they understand how to 
make the most out of this large capital of human misery. An 
acknowledged chief, recognized by the state, rules over this army 
of mendicants, and the King of the Beggars is held responsible 
for the conduct of his tattered subjects. At Pekin he is a great 
power. On certain fixed days he is allowed to despatch his fol- 
lowers to solicit alms, or rather to plunder the environs of the 



316 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

capital. It would require the pencil of a Hogarth to picture 
this disorderly array of maimed and ragged scarecrows proudly 
marching to the conquest of a village. Whilst his subjects are 
intimidating the inhabitants by their insolent demands, the king 
goes to the head of the community and agrees to release the 
villagers from the importunity of his subjects on the payment of 
a certain sum. After much haggling, a ransom is fixed and 
paid, when, at a signal from their monarch, the beggars flock like 
so many birds to the next point on their route. All sums col- 
lected are handed to the king, who distributes the proceeds 
afterward in some mysterious manner peculiar to the fraternity 
over which he holds sway. 

" A great number of vagabonds will not submit to even this 
semblance of authority and discipline, but wander about on their 
own account, ever ready to rob and pillage the weak and defence- 
less, and forming a constant source of public annoyance. 

" In the vain endeavor to get the upper hand of this evil, the 
Chinese government has established granaries and numerous 
pawnbrokers' shops, the existence of which, though of late date 
in Europe, has been long known in China. These establish- 
ments, however, can only help those who are in temporary need 
of assistance; the utterly destitute have never a rag to pawn, 
and are relieved by gifts of money, clothing, or food. There are 
also many public hospitals for the relief and succor of the most 
necessitous, but such benevolent institutions are far from suffi- 
cient to allay the misery which pauperism inflicts upon the 
empire. 

" Yet some few people have made even this hideous ulcer of 
poverty and disease subservient to their own ends, and have 
managed to extract profit from a quarter, where, to most men, 
such a feat would seem impossible. The greed of gain suggested 
to some ghrewd Chinese the idea of providing sleeping-quarters 
for these vagabonds, and they accordingly built a huge lath and 



OPIUM— THE MONSTER COVERLET 317 

plaster hall, the floor of which was covered with a thick layer of 
chickens' feathers, from which it derived its name of Ki-mao-fan, 
or the ' House of the Hens' Feathers.' To this establishment, 
at sunset, crowd all the rogues and mendicants who can find no 
other shelter, and on the payment of a sapeck, or one-fifth part 
of a farthing, are provided with lodgings for the night. There 
is no established order of coming and going in the Ki-mao-fan ; 
men, women, and children all bundle in as they chance to arrive, 
and each one makes himself the best bed he can amongst the 
feathers. At first the spirited proprietors used to furnish each 
of their lodgers with a covering, but these disappeared with a 
rapidity that showed plainly some other method must be devised 
to kept these light-fingered gentry warm. A brilliant idea 
struck the manager, and was immediately adopted with unquali- 
fied success. A huge felt rug was procured, of such dimensions 
that it covered the whole floor of the hall. During the day this 
monster coverlet, in which, I may mention, are pierced many 
holes for the heads of the sleepers to protrude through, is hoisted 
up to the roof ; but when the night comes, and the building has 
filled, an attendant lowers it down over the whole of the sleepers, 
who are thus protected from the drip or rain through the roof, 
or from draughts ; as to warmth, the heat from such numbers 
becomes suffocating." 

At Canton, they visited the tomb of Confucius. 

Confucius, who taught that we must read what we should be 
in life from what was noble in the life of our ancestors, was 
born on June 19th, 551 years before Christ, in the age of Pythag- 
oras. He studied life in the virtues of noble men who had 
lived and died so as to make the world better and happier. 
He lived seventy-three years. Babylon was the world's great 
city at that time, and Cyrus was king of Persia. 

He became a high officer in the court. His real name was 
King Futsze. He led a good life, and founded a school of phi- 



318 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

losophy for the reformation of China, which country had become 
very corrupt. He found followers in the court, and his philos- 
ophy spread over China, and became a religion in Corea, and 
grew in favor after his death. People began to study the virtues 
of their ancestors, and then to worship these virtues, and at last 
to worship their ancestors. Tombs of noble men became shrines, 
and shrines temples. 

The great Chinese interpreter of the works of Confucius was 
the philosopher Mencius. 

Our tourists left the instructive Ah Hue at Canton. He there 
related the last of his favorite Jataka tales. 



THE WISE QUAIL — A STORY ALL SHOULD HEAR 

There was once a Buddha who came into this life from 
another in the form of a little quail. 

His parents discovered that he was no common bird, and they 
knew not what would become of him. So they said : 

" We will not teach him to run, we will not teach him to fly ; 
-he shall not know the meaning of feet and wings." 

So they said, when he came to feather : 

" Sit on your nest, little quail. We will bring you berries here." 

The little quail sat upon her nest and was fed, and won- 
dered at all the miracles of wings and feet (as children of rich 
parents are likely to do). 

There were great jungle fires in those days, and one suddenly 
arose. 

" What shall we do now ? " asked the parent quails ; " our 
little one cannot run or fly." 

" We must fly or perish," said the hen quail. 

" We must fly or perish," said the other. " If we were to 
stay by our little one, all three would perish together." 



i 



THE WISE QUAIL 321 

The fire rushed, the fire roared. It encircled the little quail 
on its nest. 

Then the little Buddha quail saw its parents fly away, and 
mount above the smoke and fire, and it saw the h^res run away. 

" What shall I do now ? " asked the little quail in alarm, and 
the fire drew nearer, and it felt the hot breath. 

The little quail stood up and said : 

" I have faith." 

The fire circle around the little quail became smaller. 

" Aiid I have feet and ivings ! " 

The little Buddha quail had found its feet and wings through 
faith. 

" And I can run like a hare, and mount up above the fire like 
a real bird. What others have done, I can do, no matter what 
I have been taught." 

It ran out of the nest. Through faith it had found its feet. 

'' Through faith I can fly as well as walk," said the little 
quail. " I come to ye, ye skies, I will mount up to ye, ye 
birds, that fly over the smoke and fire. I come, I come." 

And the little Buddha quail began to rise, and circle, and 
soar. 

Then it sang : 

" I have wings, I have wings." 

And the Buddha quail became the wisest of birds. 

The party sailed from Canton to Tonquin, purposing to return 
to Hong-kong. 



CHAPTER XXVII, 
THE KTNDEEGAKTEN IN FOOCHOW 

FoocHOW, or the " Happy Region," lies some 180 miles from 
Amoy of the Beautiful Gate, 375 miles from the quiet port of 
Shanghai, and 450 from busy Canton. ' It has some million or 
more inhabitants, including a vast river population, — people who 
live in boats. 

Some of her bridges are remarkable, among them one called 
the " Bridge of 1,000 Ages," said to be eight hundred years old. 
Towers rise everywhere in the rich old city. 

There our tourists found illustrations of many of their the- 
ories. 

The American missionaries there have a hospital for women 
and children, a school for women, and a kindergarten. 

Opium-eaters come to the hospital to be cured of their habits ; 
but hospitals, however great-hearted, do not always cure this 
fearful habit. A recent report of the hospital work contains the 
following story : 

'' A patient, whose husband was an opium smoker, came to us 
one day crying, saying she must go home, as she had no more 
money. Then she explained that she had been living on money 
she earned by selling cakes in the street. Her husband had a 
few days before changed three dollars for her, and had given 
her bad money. She did not know he had deceived her until, 
when she wanted to buy rice, one after another of her bills was 
rejected. It seems strange that she should have trusted him 
when she knew so well that for a long time he had done nothing 

322 



i 



THE KINDERGARTEN IN FOOCIIOW 325 

to help her, but a woman in China who cannot find help in her 
own home is indeed friendless, so such are loth to break away 
from their husbands even when they are most unworthy. We 
offered to give this woman her rice in the hospital until she was 
stronger, but she said she must go home and look after things. 
She is a Christian woman and bears her trials with cheerfulness, 
but hers is indeed a sad life. 

" The products of the opium trade cut a sorry figure as seen 
from the standpoint of a medical missionary. In order to 
satisfy this craving a man will rob his house of every comfort, 
and then sell his wife and children. It destroys all sense of 
pity and honor more completely, if possible, than the habit 
of strong drink. An intemperate man will sometimes be him- 
self again and show some love for his family. We have heard 
of a drunkard who was reformed by seeing his wife's tears drop 
into the cup of water she gave him to drink. He vowed he 
would never drink his wife's tears again, and he kept his word. 
But an opium-smoker could drink his wife's tears unmoved. 
When we see this misery and remember how opium was intro- 
duced into China, it makes us long for the time when nations 
will be rich enough to enjoy the luxury of doing right." 

There are kindergartens in Smyrna, Caesarea, and in Tokio, 
(Japan). They are multiplying in centres of Western educa- 
tion in the East. 

Mrs. Barnard and Lucy found the kindergarten at Foochow a 
very lovely place. It had an open court, in which were growing 
plants, rare flowers, and globes of goldfish. The posts of the 
room were colored red ; the walls were white and were hung 
with pictures. The room looked like an art gallery. The floor 
was kept as clean as a dining-table. Everything had a cheerful 
atmosphere. 

A hall led from the main room to a garden, called the Tuthill 
Garden, which was the delight of the children. Here the 



326 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

flowers seemed blooming in celestial air. Here was a grape- 
fruit tree, a loquat orange tree, and a sweet-fruit tree. The 
children played in the shadows of these trees, amid flowers and 
birds and under open skies. 

Here were pansies, pinks, marigolds, verbenas, sweet peas, 
roses, geraniums, heliotropes, and jessamines, which the children 
raised and cultivated with their own hands. 

The pulling up of weeds was one of the early lessons taught in 
this kinderplatz. There is a somewhat similar school at Swatow. 

During the visit, a very strange thing happened in one of these 
schools. 

A little girl was brought into the schoolroom to have her 
feet unbound. 

She looked like a dumpling, but she had a bright face. 

As Lucy stood among the teachers, and saw the wrappers 
taken one by one from the cramped feet, and read the joy of the 
child's heart in her face, she said : 

" It is for the kindergartens to unbind the feet of China. If I 
were a queen, I would plant kindergartens everywhere. That 
would be a new missionary world." 

The little Chinese girl toppled down to the clean floor, and 
tried to walk. She looked as though she were trying to fly. 
" Ah ! oh ! ah ! oh ! ah ! " she said. Then she fell down, 
laughing and crying. 

Mrs. Barnard had studied the ways of helping others in all 
the journey, but nothing gave her more delight than these 
Chinese schools. She saw what this method of human help 
might be to China and the East. 




A CHINESE LADY WITH BOUND FEET 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
TONQUIN 

The story of the French protectorate of Tonquin, or Tonking, 
is not without shadows. All that can be said of such doubtful 
moral conditions is that when a low order of civilization opposes 
a higher one, the lower one in the end must yield to the higher 
— it is gravitation. Tonquin was the shelter of pirates, of 
black flags, and barbarism on the sea. By an old treaty France 
had a concession of a strip of coast ; her ships were opposed 
by the pirates, and she enforced a higher order of civilization 
there. It is claimed against her that she used her power for 
exploitation. However this may be, France in Tonquin has 
meant a higher order of life. 

Look upon the map of Asia. Turn your eye upon the China 
Sea. Upon one side of this eventful water are the Philippine 
Islands, and on the other are Tonquin and Cochin-China. The 
island of Hainan forms a part of the Gulf of Tonquin. 
Strangely enough, in the China Sea, Hong-kong stands for 
England, Tonquin for France, and Luzon for the United 
States. 

West of Tonquin is Siam, and northwest of Siam is Burma. 

For what Canton stands in the present condition of affairs 
it would be hard to say. We know, or think we know, for what 
Manchuria stands in the future, — for the mighty power of 
Russian China, — but the port cities of the China Sea are 
in a state of transition. 

In 1418 there arose a great prince in Tonquin called Le-Loi. 

329 



330 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

He threw off the Chinese yoke, founded the Le dynasty, and 
made Hanoi his capital. His deeds are still sung. 

Dynasties rose and fell, and early in 1600 French missions 
were established in Tonquin, or in Annam. 

In 1787 " rights " were conceded to France in Tonquin, and in 
1838 the French began to claim these rights for trade purposes. 
The latter found the so-called " thousand isles " infested by 
pirates, and cleared the sea of the black flags. France subdued 
the mandarins, and compelled a commercial treaty in 1874. She 
extended a protectorate over Annam, and seized the citadel 
of Hanoi. Since then the French rule has prevailed in 
Tonquin. 

Very interesting are the forest provinces of Tonquin ; like the 
Gran Chaco in South America it is a vast menagerie, an 
almost unknown world. 

The Red River is the great watercourse of Tonquin. The 
country has an area of about sixty thousand miles, with a popu- 
lation of twelve million. 

Hanoi is the chief town in Tonquin, and is, perhaps, the 
finest in all Cochin-China. Its population is 150,000 or more. 
It contains the government palace and the royal pagoda. 
Thirty years ago the city was hardly known to European 
commerce. 

In the contest with the pirates, the Black Flag chief showed 
himself to be a heroic, or mock heroic, opponent. He 
issued the following fiery proclamation against the French 
invaders. Read it. The instinct of liberty is strong in it ; the 
words scorch and flame. 

" You French brigands live by violence in Europe, and glare 
out on all the world like tigers, seeking for a place to exercise 
your craft and cruelty. Where there is land you lick your 
chops for lust of it; where there are riches you would fain 
lay hands on them. You send out teachers of rehgion to 




:BARBi\/r. 



A WOMAN OF TOXQUIN 



TONQUIN 333 

undermine and ruin the people. You say you wish for inter- 
national commerce, but you merely wish to swallow up the 
country. 

" There are no bounds to your cruelty, and there is no name for 
your wickedness. You trust in your strength, and you debauch 
our women and our youth. Surely this excites the indignation 
of gods and men, and is past the endurance of heaven or earth. 
Now you seek to conquer Annam, and behind the dummy of 
international commerce cast the treaty aside and befool the 
world, that you may satisfy your lust for blood, capture cities, 
storm towns, slaughter mandarins, and rob everybody. You kill 
the innocent, and you bribe in secret. Your outrages and cruel- 
ties extend everywhere. Your crimes are unspeakable. Not all 
the water of the West River would wash out your shame. He 
who issues this proclamation has received behest to avenge these 
wrongs. He has taken oath to exterminate you with an army 
which bears Ni Q Justice ') on its banners. His first desire was 
at once, with the speed of a thunderbolt, to descend on your 
rabbit-holes and exterminate you without pity, like the vermin 
you are. Such would raise rejoicing in the heart of man, and 
would be a symbol of Heaven's vengeance. But Hanoi is an 
ancient and honorable town. It is filled with honest and 
loyal citizens. Therefore could he not endure that the city 
should be reduced to ruins, and young and old be put to the 
sword. 

" Therefore now do I, Liu Jung-Fu, issue proclamation. Know 
ye, French robbers, that I come to meet you. Rely on your 
strength and rapine, and lead forth your herd of sheep and curs 
to meet my army of heroes, and see who will be master. Wai- 
Tak-Fu, an open space, I have fixed on as the field where I shall 
establish my fame. If you own that you are no match for us ; 
if you acknowledge that you carrion Jews are only fit to grease 
the edge of our blades ; if you would still remain alive, then 



334 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

behead your leaders, bring their heads to my official abode, leave 
our city, and return to your own foul lairs. Then I, out of 
regard for the Lord of Heaven, for humanity, and for my com- 
mission from government to maintain peace, will not slaughter 
you for mere personal gratification. But if you hesitate and 
linger on, hankering for what you cannot take, one morning my 
soldiers will arrive, and with them dire misfortune for you. 
Take heed, and yield while yet you may. Be not as mules, and 
involve yourselves in ruin. Let each man ponder this well, 
while yet he may save himself from death." 

The walls about Hanoi are interesting. Outside are clothes- 
washing places, and wallowing commons for buffaloes. 

Hanoi was once a place of bamboo houses and drains. The 
French have changed all this squalor into homes with decencies. 

The Chinese live in their own quarter. They are traffickers, 
and many of them agents of the hongs in China. Little shrines 
to good spirits are to be found everywhere. Many of them are 
adorned with fresh or faded flowers. 

The holy sign of the ancient royalty is to be found in many 
places. It signifies the union of spiritual and temporal powers 
in the heaven and earth, in the sovereign, and m the constitution 
of man. It is called the Soastica. 

Mro J. G. Scott, an oriental traveller, thus pictures a visit that 
he made to a Tonquin joss-house : 

" To visit these religious houses one has to pass through the city 
wall at a place where the French have raised a large brick block- 
house, with a couple of guns to defend the northern approaches 
to the town. It is not easy to find one's way into the finer 
buildings, which are all situated on the islands. It is necessary 
to meander about among the houses, for there are no roads, and 
this causes terrible alarm among the women and boys, great 
barking of dogs, and barring of doors and windows. 

" Nevertheless, in the early days of 1884, when few French- 



( 



i 



J 



TONQUIN 337 

men ventured outside the city walls, and the monks were not yet 
scared away, the writer was fortunate enough to see a religious 
service in one of these joss-houses. There was a large, brick- 
paved court in front, with a wall all around, and a highly ornate 
gateway on the face opposite the temple. The temple itself was 
quite open toward this court, with simply a few wooden pillars 
to support the roof. In the background was the altar of Buddha, 
who w^as represented as a Chinese-looking personage, very highly 
painted, and supported on either side by disciples. The lower 
edges of the altar were covered with wooden sacrificial vessels, 
incense braziers, cups of oil with wicks in them, spiral joss- 
sticks, and the like. 

" In front of this was the altar for offerings, with more sacri- 
ficial utensils, paper boats, piles of bars of silver and gold in 
paper, flowers, rice, and fruit. On either side were racks of 
processional weapons in pairs on long poles, — a griffin's head, 
a closed hand, with a pencil grasped in it, another with the fore- 
finger extended, a tiger's head, the hammer of the gods, swords, 
and spears. To the right and left, in what might be called the 
chancel, were two niches, with Arahats in them ; and beneath 
these, two rocky-like structures with frames in little cavities, 
representing what had the appearance of scenes on the Last Day. 
On the left-hand side, the righteous were admitted into a kind 
of paradise, where was enthroned a majestic Buddha, with other 
divinities by his side. On the right, were representations of the 
punishments of the damned. Huge devils, with tails and talons, 
were depicted pitchforking the wicked with barbed and corkscrew 
lances into different hells, where there were other victims hung, 
impaled, drowned, roasted, stripped of their flesh. Side by side 
were two cleverly modelled figures which showed considerable 
artistic humor. One was a fat, complacent individual, clasping 
with podgy hands at a Falstafiian belly ; the other was a mere 
skeleton, all skin and bone, the bones being very carefully studied. 



338 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

They were regarding one another as the rich man and Lazarus 
might have done. 

" On either side of the central table with its lighted candles 
were figures, — one a commonplace good spirit, with the scanty 
chin-beard and mustache common to the Annamese, and with 
a very vacant face, intended, no doubt, to express good-will ; the 
other was unmistakably an evil spirit, and the carver had evi- 
dently devoted much study to the subject, with very remarkable 
success. Possibly he had a bad conscience. The creature stood 
on one foot, with the other drawn up as in a demoniac dance. 
He clasped a book to his breast, and in the other hand bran- 
dished a pencil, as though he were a kind of recording devil. 
The face wore a ghoulish grin, and had a remarkable resem- 
blance to that of Satan in the celebrated picture of the temptation 
of Christ on the lofty mountain. 

" Round about, seated and kneeling, were some twenty or thirty 
devotees, some near the bell on the left, some near the gong on 
the right. In the chancel, if it may be so called, was an old 
monk presiding over a choir of a dozen others. He was wasted 
away to a mere skeleton, and was reading the lauds at the top 
of his voice, intoning them in regular Buddhist fashion, so that, 
if one had closed his eyes, it was possible to imagine a Romish 
priest chanting the mass. But it was impossible to keep one's 
eyes off the old man. 

" Now and then he was measured and solemn, but far oftener 
he seemed as if in an inspired ecstasy, stretching out his hands 
and making uncanny gestures with his fingers at a prodigious 
pace. The worshippers seemed altogether unimpressed, and 
talked away to one another as if nothing were going on, but 
without affecting the celebrant. When he ceased for a time, 
apparently from exhaustion, the choir commenced a kind of 
liturgy, with the accompaniment of several flutes and a primi- 
tive kind of violin. After a time the old monk rang a little 




TONQriN BARBER TREATING THE EAR 



TONQUIN 341 

bell, and the chorus ceased, to let him begin his recitation again. 
He became more and more excited, interlaced his fingers ner- 
vously, cast his eyes over the congregation, threw himself on 
his face, and violently rung the bell. 

" Thereupon all the crowd, who all this time had been indis- 
criminately talking, joking, laughing, praying, singing, and even 
sleeping, prostrated themselves on their faces a full minute. 
Then apparently all was beginning over again, when some one 
noticed the foreigner outside. There was a stifled shriek. 
The religious scattered in all directions, the assisting monks 
commenced putting up the boards which closed the front en- 
trance, and the old celebrant came out and, humbly chin-chin- 
ning, begged that information might not be laid against him as a 
malcontent. A present of a dollar reassured him somewhat, 
wretched Sramana that he was, to touch polluting lucre, but he 
could not be persuaded to go on with the service, and when next, 
two months later, the writer passed that way, the place was 
empty and half stripped, and bats' dung defiled the wooden 
benches round the walls where late the pious had wept. Truly, 
it was not creditable to the French." 

Among the popular diversions of Tonquin is one seldom 
seen in other countries. It is called the dan-ho. A large 
bottle is placed in a frame, with an open neck. The 
players throw flexible rods upon a disk on the ground in 
such a way that they will bound and fall into the open neck 
of the bottle. The game is one of dexterity, like the Australian 
boomerang. 

Education receives much attention in French Tonquin. The 
superintendent of education is called a doe-hoc. He is a man 
of accomplishments, and some of his pupils are as promising in 
their appearance as he himself is refined and cultured. 

The simplicity of peasant life in the agricultural districts of 
Tonquin shows that invention has done little for the people. 



342 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

The farmer ploughs with one animal as his ancestors did two or 
more thousand years ago. 

^' Manchuria may mean much, but I think that a kindergarten 
in China means more," said Mr. Barnard, after seeing Ufe in 
Tonquin. "If I had my life before me I think I would be- 
come a kindergartner in China." 

" Let me prepare to become a kindergartner in China," said 
Lucy. 

" And let me follow the trade of an importer," said Charles. 

" Travel is the true school of commerce," said Mr. Barnard. 
" Our journey has been superficial, but we have all learned 
something, and I hope that we are all better prepared for the 
duties of life." 

At Hofig-kong they found a strange mingling of Western and 
oriental life. The City Hall was English, but the streets were 
gay with oriental signs and streamers. Here all nations meet ; 
here is the Eastern port of the world. 




A DOC - HOC 



CHAPTER XXIX. 
HOME — THE MYSTERY MADE CLEAR 

Our tourists, except Ah Hue, landed at South Boston. They 
had telegraphed their coming from Liverpool. 

They were met at the wharf by the old tea merchant, who had 
told them the strange story of the mystery of the old houses on 
Rumney Marsh, a year before. 

" Right glad I am to see you all back again, sound and well, 
and prepared to take up life as never before, as I suppose," said 
the old merchant. 

They sat down in the plain waiting-room, while their baggage 
was being released. 

" Well," said the old merchant ; " and what have you learned 
about China ? " 

" That we can grow teas in the Carolinas," said Mr. Barnard. 

" And hardy oranges in Florida," said Charles. 

" And kumquats in Florida and Louisiana," said Louis. 

" And that the native Christians of China will carry on the 
work of the missionaries," said Lucy, '' and plant kindergartens 
there." 

" And that the curse of China is opium," said Mrs. Barnard. 
" Opium breeds criminals." 

The old tea merchant rose, and turned around and around. 

" You are right, my good woman, and I have a very strange 
thing to tell you right here in the passenger rooms on the wharf. 
Do you remember my story of the hollow bricks, and of the two 
bodies that were found in the mill-house ? " 

345 



346 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

" Yes, yes," said all. 

" That story has haunted us," said Mrs. Barnard. " It 
haunted Ah Hue. We have brought home much to tell 
you. There were two trading Chinamen that came to America 
from the old Canton hong, and never returned. They sailed for 
Boston before the opium war, in the days of the smuggler." 

" And they were opium collectors," said the old tea merchant, 
" and became slaves to the habit. They used to go to the old 
mill-house to smoke opium, and they made their beds by taking 
up boards from the floor, littering the hollow, and hiding them- 
selves in the darkness. 

" Listen ! One spring night there was a great storm. The 
waves dashed over the beach and sea walls ; they rose high above 
the marshes, and half-way up the walls of the old mill-house. 

" The two Chinamen were in the mill-house drunk with 
opium. The sea found them living, and left them dead." 

" But what became of their gold ? " asked the boys. 

" You may yet be able to find it, as the carpenters found the 
jade bricks — somewhere — no one knows where — on Rumney 
Marsh." 

" How do you know these things ? " asked Charles. 

'' An old man remembered the circumstances of the dis- 
appearance of these men, and thought that they came to some 
violent end. When he was told the story of the jade boxes, 
the mystery was made clear to him. Opium is a crime ! " 

" China is a sleeping giant," said Mr. Barnard. 

'' She is awaking ; she will some day shake the world. China 
has gone down again and again, but she has risen again. China 
is China, and China of a new birth and civilization she is destined 
to be. We can teach her many things. She can teach us some 
things. China will be China without a wall." 

" Her idol temples are decaying," said Mrs. Barnard, " and her 
highest ideals are expanding. Her glorious years are yet to come." 



CHAPTER XXX. 
THE INCEEDIBILITY OF THE BUDDHIST LEGENDS 

We have used in this book many Buddhist legends, and 
we should add a word about the great religion of the East. 

Buddhism has an alluring side for a poetic mind, but it is 
not true; its claims are founded on legends that are utterly 
incredible, legends that modern science has shown to be 
impossible. Its leading doctrine that the soul is reborn in 
other forms cannot be true. 

If we take the philosopher's position, that truth is truth 
wherever found, and that revelation is the universal record 
of truth, the poetic legends of Buddha utterly fail. Yet millions 
of human beings have given up their lives to gain merit in 
useless ways. But the principle of self-sacrifice, even in super- 
stition, is a noble one. 

My reader should be led to see how useless and untruthful 
are the claims of this religion, which dominates nearly a third 
of the world, and which represents the largest of human beliefs. 
It may be said that the world church to-day is Buddhism. 
It holds four hundred million souls. Like its temples, it is 
decaying. Its antagonist is science, and with the growth of 
scientific education it must disappear. 

In 1866 Mr. R. Spence Hardy, an English orientalist, pub- 
lished a book showing how absurd were the claims of the great 
oriental religion in view of the modern enlightenment. Let us 
give you a few of the many examples which he cites of the 
impossibilities of the Buddhist legendary teachings. 

349 



350 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

He notes the contradictions of the so-called sacred books. 
Take as an example of impossible teachings the Buddhist 
theory of the world. 

" The Buddhists are taught that the universe is composed 
of limitless systems or worlds, called Chakka-wala, or Sakwalas. 
They are scattered throughout space, in sections of three and 
three, — and incomprehensible as is their number, they can all 
be seen by Buddha, who can know whatever takes place in any 
one of them, if he turns his attention toward it, or wills to 
know it. In the centre of each system there is a mountain 
called Sineru, or Maha Meru. It is 1,680,000 miles from 
its base to its summit, half of which mass is below, and half 
above the surface of the ocean. It is the same size, or 840,000 
miles in length and breadth. On each side it is of a different 
color, being like silver toward the east, and like a sapphire 
toward the south. But though its sides are spoken of, it is 
round, not square. If it were square, like a house, it would 
be spoken of as having a north wall, or a south wall. Its side 
means its aspect, whether north or south ; and by its size is 
meant its diameter. It is supported on the three-peaked 
Trikuta Rock, like a vessel upon a tripod. If it were square 
it would require four rocks upon which to stand, instead of 
three. Where these rocks rise to the elevation of forty thou- 
sand miles, there Maha Meru rests, and it is firmly clasped by 
them as by a pair of pincers. When it is said in the Loka- 
pannyap-tip-prakarana that it lies in the ocean only eight hun- 
dred thousand miles deep, it is because the elevation of the 
rocks is not included. The three rocks rest upon a World of 
Stone." 

Science has proved any such theory as this of the universe as 
utterly false. Think of a mountain a million or more miles 
high, and an ocean eight hundred thousand miles deep — the 
diameter of the earth being only eight thousand miles. These 



i 



INCREDIBILITY OF THE BUDDHIST LEGENDS 353 

books say that the stone on which the earth rests is 1,200,000 
miles thick. They have vokimes given to dimensions like these. 

The Buddhist astronomy is impossible, as science has proved. 
We are told in the books that the inside of the smi is gold 
and the outside is crystal. 

In the heavens dwells a monster who swallows the sun and 
moon. He is thus described: 

" This Rahu is 48,000 miles in size ; his breadth between the 
shoulders is 12,000 miles ; his thickness, from breast to back, 
is 6,000 ; his head is 9,000 miles in size ; his forehead, 3,000 
miles; from eyebrow to eyebrow is 1,500 miles; his nose is 
3,000 miles long, and his mouth 3,000 miles deep; the breadth 
of his palm and of his foot is 2,000 miles ; and one joint of his 
finger is 500 miles long. When Rahu sees the shining of the 
sun, he descends toward the path in which it moves, and there 
remaining with his mouth open, the sun falls into it, as if 
into the Awichi hell. The dewas resident in the sun bawl 
out, trembling with fear. He sometimes hides them under his 
jaw ; sometimes licks them with his tongue ; and sometimes 
moves them up and down in his mouth, like an animal chewing 
its cud. But he is not able to prevent them from moving 
onward. Were he to attempt to keep them in his mouth, 
saying, ' I will kill these (bawling) dewas,' they would' escape 
through the crown of his head." 

The fishes in the books are thousands of miles long ; the trees 
thousands of miles high. Of course all such statements are ab- 
surd. Science has found no mountain which the Buddhist books 
describe as fifty times larger than our earth is now known to be. 

Mr. Hardy in his book thus almost needlessly reasons against 
the great monster of the heavens, called Asur Rahu. 

" The eclipses of the sun and moon are caused, according to 
Buddha, by this monster, who is said to be nearly fifty thousand 
miles high. He sometimes covers them with his hand, and 



354 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

sometimes hides them in his mouth. But how can a being, 
with a mouth only three thousand miles deep, swallow the sun, 
which is eight hundred thousand miles in diameter, according 
to the calculations of science. If the sun be of so hot a nature 
as is represented, why does not he bawl out, as well as the 
dewas, during the operation ; and as even a burnt child shuns 
the fire, why does he repeat the experiment so frequently, when 
he knows what must be the consequence ? 

" As to the moon, we are quite sure that there must be some 
mistake. In the maps of its surface, the detached masses of 
matter thrown down the sides of its mountains bear a consider- 
able resemblance to the mounds of sand, hollow in the centre, 
piled up and thrown down with so much industry by the ants in 
the cinnamon gardens near Colombo and other places. If Rahu 
licks the moon with his tongue, how is it that immediately after- 
ward its surface is as bright as ever, and not a fragment in its 
hollows or heaps displaced ? And how is it that scientific men, 
and even the naksaestrakarayas of the island, can tell to so exact 
a period as a second of time, for hundreds of years beforehand, 
that the seizure will take place ? Is Rahu a living machinery 
that has life like a man, and yet is obliged to move with more 
regularity than a clock or a watch, and this for thousands of 
years ? Then, there is not another being like him in the whole 
universe. What does he do it for ? Does he suppose that he 
can stop the course of the sun or the moon ? If he could, what 
would be the benefit? And when he has tried, and tried in 
vain, for so many years, what a simpleton he must be to renew 
the attempt ! And, lastly, how is it, except upon the principles 
of European science, that the solar seizure always takes place at 
the time of the dark moon, when the moon is between the earth 
and the sun ; and that the lunar seizure always takes place at 
the time the moon is full, when the earth comes between the 
moon and the sun, and intercepts his rays ? 



INCREDIBILITY OF THE BUDDHIST LEGENDS 



355 



" I am told that my labor here may be spared, as there is 
scarcely any one who will read these pages who really believes 
in the existence of Rahu. But is not this a declaration and 



:^-^^-^ 






'M''^ 




MALEFACTORS 



confession that Buddha either told a wilful untruth, or that he 
himself was deceived ? " 

At the time of Buddha's birth we are told that there were 
sixty-three thousand kings, and that on his name-day eighty 
thousand relatives were present to do him honor. 



356 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

In regard to Buddha's ancestry we are told : 

" Such is the number of monarchs of the dynasty from which 
Bodhisat is sprung. From Maha Sammata, the first king, to 
Suddhodana, the father of Buddha, there were 706,787 kings, 
who reigned in nineteen different capitals, all of which were 
known in the time of Bhagawa ; but several of them have since 
.become desolate, and even their sites forgotten, among which 
we must include his own native city, Kapila-watthu." 

Most of what Buddha is asserted to have taught in regard to 
geology, astronomy, and biology has proved to be untrue. His 
visions of rebirth can have no more value than his astronomy. 

There is one thing in Buddhism that represents the law of 
life: 

" I shall be heir to all of the actions which I perform." 

What China needs is Swiss kindergarten, the school that puts 
the Sermon on the Mount of Beatitudes into the ideals and 
habits of the child. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 
A NEW POET OF THE WORLD 

Look upon the map again. Note Tien-Tsin, the port of Pekin 
on the river. The city has been a port for all nations, and has 
nearly or quite a million inhabitants. But since the great up- 
rising against foreign residents, it is not regarded as secure by 
visitors to China, even under the new treaties. Canton is open 
to the same distrust. Hong-kong is English. Off the city of 
Amoy, vs^ith its beautiful gate, lies an island whose situation is 
quite safe, and whose climate is a charm, — a bit of paradise in 
the boat-sprinkled sea. It is called Kulangsu. Amoy is the 
principal city of the mountain- walled province of Fu Kian, or Fu 
Kien, or Fo Kian. Between Amoy and this delightful island of 
beauty and bloom, lies the great island of Formosa. It is some 
ninety miles from Amoy to Formosa. 

Formosa is about 237 miles long and seventy miles wide. 
The island has between two and three million inhabitants, and 
is a part of the province of Fu Kian. Here abound maize, 
sugar-cane, rice, cinnamon, camphor, oranges, pineapples, guavas, 
cocoa-nuts, grapes, peaches, and almost every kind of fruit 
known to the tropical sun. 

The same fruits grow on bowery, sea-cooled Kulangsu. 

If there be an island on the long coast where foreigners could 
live in safety amid enchanting scenery, it would be this garden 
of the sea. 

At the time of the Boxer uprising, the American representa- 
tive at Pekin seems to have seen how desirable this blooming 

359 



360 TRAVELLER TALES OF CHINA 

and guarded island would be as a port for the Western powers. 
He instituted a movement to secure it for the purpose of safe 
residence for visitors from the West. 

The foreign ministers, led by the American representative, 
made an application to the authorities of Amoy for the use of 
this island. It was granted in a hospitable spirit, and the sea 
garden promises to become the Hong-kong of the world. 

Run your eye over the map along the Tropic of Cancer, and 
note the position of this flowery isle in regard to Japan, the 
Philippine Islands, Australia, and the American coast. Note 
where the Nicaragua Canal will break the American continent, 
and then let your eye sail back again over the calm Pacific. 
What a world we shall one day be, when the family of nations 
unite in brotherhood ! 

My readers have followed the " race around the world " made 
by three boys representing American newspapers. They have 
seen that one may go around the world by the Siberian railway 
and the Amoor in sixty days. Such a trip might be made to 
advantage in five months at a cost of 1500, and it would be the 
beginning of an invaluable education. The time is coming 
when educational travel will form an important part of the 
preparation for intelligent business life ; when people will see 
the world, not at the end, but at the beginning of a business 
career, like our good friends from whom we now part. 



THE END. 



'c ii^Oi 



SEP 21 1901 



